My Reality
by StormyTempest
Summary: To come back to your home, or to stay here indefinitely, it's your choice. Either way, you're going to get your family back. Either way, you're going to become one of the worlds' greatest superheroes. You have an easier life here than your old one, but then again, you're someone who's always up for a challenge. You don't need to answer now, but you will; I'll be waiting.
1. Unexpected

**A/N: Hope it isn't too terrible. This is a NARUTOxMARVELxDC crossover where Naruto is born a mutant in the Marvel Universe. His 'big brother' will be more like the Naruto from the manga, though not the same one. Will probably do the NARUTOxMARVEL crossover later for a clearer story.**

Dialogue types:

_"Telepathic Communication"_

**_"Radio Communication/Nonhuman telepathic communication"_**

**"Nonhuman Speaking"**

"Regular Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Young Justice, those titles, together with characters present in the stories, are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and DC comics, respectively.

* * *

**Code Name:** Chaos

**Real Name:** Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki

**Birthday:** October 10

**Eye Color:** Blue

**Hair Color:** Yellowish Blonde

**Height:** 5'1"

**Race:** Mutant, Caucasian/Oriental

**Abilities:**

Sorcery/Magic, focused on runes and seals, Naruto's main area of expertise are elemental manipulation and time-space manipulation; Compounded with his Reality manipulation abilities, Naruto capable of virtually anything (trained by his grandmother, father and Doctor Fate);

Telepathy, capable of an array of telepathic defenses, telepathic cloak, telepathic camouflage, telepathic illusions, psychic shields, mental paralysis, mental amnesia, astral projection and plenty others;

Telekinesis, capable of manipulating matter on a molecular level and lifting up to a hundred tons;

Reality Manipulation, he is capable of feats only the Sorcerer Supreme is supposedly able to do;

Enhanced Bodily Functions (Peak Human Capabilities -as much as a twelve year old can) {Strength, Speed, Reflex, Agility, Stamina, Intelligence, Senses, Healing, Durability}

Skills:

Stealth (trained by his grandmother, father and Batman);

Multiple hand-to-hand combat styles (trained by Batman);

Multiple weapon styles (trained by Arashi and Batman)

**Equipment:**

A mystical metal capable of changing shape, texture and color that adheres to the mental commands of Naruto, though not as strong as the Uru metal, it is capable of withstanding the force of an exploding star (given by Arashi/Naruto's demon world counterpart);

A mystically enhanced porcelain mask with a holographic display behind it connected with Naruto's magic, copied from a creation of Minato Namikaze with his Technopathy/Cyberkinesis/Technokinesis through Naruto's Reality Manipulation; it is lined with seals and runes that separates the mind from the body, allowing for the user to direct his body while being presented data gathered from the environment, then later from his own body;

A magical medallion shaped as the Uzumaki crest that helps Naruto focus and control his Reality Manipulation powers and Magic (a gift given by Doctor Strange after finding out about Naruto's potential and uncontrolled powers); it was later enhanced with seals to store a large amount of mystical and cosmic energy;

A magically enhanced dragon scale trench coat lined with time-space runes and seals capable of storing matter, meant to withstand extreme cold or extreme heat (a gift from Arashi and later enhanced by Minato);

A magically woven cloth enchanted to fit the body of its wearer, enchanted to keep the body warm in cold temperatures and cool in hot ones, also enchanted to change colors according Naruto's will (a creation by Kent Nelson, trying to duplicate the capabilities of the mystical sphere given by Arashi)

**History:**

Unknowingly summoned into the world by five sorcerers to enhance their magical capabilities by absorbing his own - result unsuccessful. For five years, Naruto was taken in as an apprentice to Kent Nelson, wielder of the Helmet of Fate, and further trained in his magical capabilities. Before he was summoned into this world, Naruto was a student in a school called Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters -a school for those like himself. Naruto, from the world he came from, was called a mutant -a human born with capabilities unlike those around him, ranging from generating earthquakes, to controlling the weather, from shape shifting to the creation of illusory copies of oneself. Those who were like him (mutants), however, were often ostracized by those who aren't, often including those in the government.

For the first twelve years of his life, from his birth to his twelfth birthday, he was raised by his parents in a world of demons, where only one human survived before they came. His 'Big Brother', Arashi, or more specifically, his counterpart in that world, came back with Naruto and his parents to their original world, to become like Naruto's parents, super humans striving to improve the relationship of their kind with the others. When they came back, however, they soon found out the reason for their accidental departure -Naruto's latent reality warping powers manifested to protect his parents and himself from an event that removed the special capabilities of those like him- the M-day.

His father, Minato Namikaze, was a mutant like himself, born to a sorceress and another superhuman, Steve Rogers. Due to certain circumstances his father had gone through, Minato and Naruto Namikaze had their growth slowed to a two-fifths of that of a normal human's. Although, technically, Naruto is thirty years old; physically, mentally and emotionally, he no older than a twelve year old.

Up to this day, the League is still unable to find a way for Naruto to return to his home world, with Naruto opting to offer his services by becoming an apprentice to Doctor Fate (and sometimes serving as Batman's sidekick alongside Robin), in hopes of becoming a hero and a member of the Justice League, the counterpart of his home world's Avengers and X-Men.

Naruto is learned in multiple sciences such as Chemistry, Physics, Biology at College levels, made possible through his enhanced mental capacity by his heritage.

* * *

**-1400 EDT, 4 July 2010; Hall of Justice, Washington, D.C.-**

Inside the Hall of Justice, Justice League members Aquaman, Batman, the Flash, Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado faced five heroes in the making -children, really.

"Do I get to go to the Watchtower, like you know, officially, this time?" asked Chaos, "Just so, you know, I don't have to sneak in all those other times." He often snuck in the Watchtower with Robin and Kid Flash, though most times they caught even before they make so much as take step after the teleportation spell. There they would try to eavesdrop on mission briefings as he often did when he was in the X-Mansion, not that they'd do anything against League orders, other than eavesdrop, that is.

"No, Chaos. We've already been through this. You don't get to become a member of the League until you're twenty-one." Batman stated without looking down at his charge, then added at his other charge, "That's for you too, Robin."

"But I'm already thirty!" Chaos said indignantly.

"By the way you're talking, it's obvious you're not." Batman said, barely able to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"We're coming here to the Hall of Justice, why? To make a club house?!" Robin scowled, "I thought we'd finally get to be members of the League, disregarding age limits!"

"You're just treating us like children again, very much like sidekicks!" Speedy shouted, "When will we be able to get the chance to prove ourselves when you don't give us any!"

Aquaman, Batman, Flash, Green Arrow, and Martian Manhunter exchanged glances with each other, before an alarm blared on the control panel near the back of the room. The screen turned on to reveal an image of Superman, "Superman to Justice League. There's been an explosion at Project Cadmus. It's on fire."

"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus." Batman began, "This may present the perfect opportunity t-"

Whatever Batman was about to say, was cut off as the alarm blared again and a smaller screen showing Zatara, "Zatara to Justice League. The sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Aten to blot out the sun. Requesting full League response."

"Superman?" Batman asked.

"It's a small fire, local authorities have it under control."

"Then Cadmus can wait." Batman replied, then pressing a key in the panel before him, he said, "All Leaguers rendezvous to Zatara's coordinates. Batman out."

Aqualad, Chaos, Kid Flash, Robin and Speedy made to follow the other League members when Batman, turning to address them, said, "Stay put."

"What?! Why?" Robin hissed.

"This is a League mission." Aquaman added.

"You're not trained." Flash reprimanded.

"Since when!?" Kid Flash exclaimed.

"Yeah! Even I've had my own missions back before I arrived here!" Chaos shouted. Well, granted that none those were particularly dangerous, he doubted that the missions the League took on were actually going to pose a challenge to him after his five years of training with the Lord of Order. He grew out of thinking his Reality Manipulation abilities as a result of his ninja techniques and instead used them as they were, in conjunction with sorcery and magic. His body, though continuing to be lean and short despite his technical age, has been growing steadily, not quite on human standards but still…

"I meant, you're not trained to work as part of this team." Flash amended, motioning for himself and the other Justice League members present.

"There will be other missions. When you're ready." Aquaman commented. As if that's going to help.

"But for now, stay put." Batman said, firmly. Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash moved for the door where the Zeta-beam tubes were located.

"You know better than to go seeking trouble now." Chaos heard in his head, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Martian Manhunter looking intensely at him, while he rolled his eyes behind his mask.

"Glad you didn't bring you know who?" Green Arrow asked the green alien.

"Indeed." the Martian agreed.

As the League members exited room, the five left were scowling at the door adults just went through. He didn't bother to smother the flames swirling around his normally obsidian costume and let it rage on.

"I can't believe it! They still don't trust us, after all we've been through!" Chaos shouted.

"You should've already expected that when they imposed that ridiculous age rule four years ago, many of the founding members weren't even of age when the League was established." Speedy said, scowling.

"Well, we could check out that Project Cadmus, Batman said he'd been suspicious, so it must be something worth looking into, at least." Chaos commented, after remembering the earlier conversation with Superman. At this, the flames stilled a little and been reduced in size, and a breeze appeared above the fire.

"Hmmm… alright, Robin, will you do the honors?" Aqualad said.

"On it." Not that Aqualad actually needed to ask, as soon as Chaos said what he said, Robin had already been punching buttons on the control panel before them. Access had been denied once, but Chaos knew enough of the programming codes that Robin would be able to hack through it, after all, the systems here are very similar to those of the Batcave.

"Woah, dude. How you doing that!" Kid Flash blurted out.

"System's the same as that of the cave's." Robin said nonchalantly, and a bit smugly.

"Alright, Project Cadmus, genetics lab. Here in D.C. That's all there is." Robin said, "Though I've heard of Batman before say it's government funded, and we all know just who is the bloody government."

"Well, whatever makes Batman suspicious is something worth looking into. Why don't we investigate?" Speedy asked.

"Solving their case before they do… why not? It would be poetic justice." Aqualad commented.

"That's what the League is about, isn't it?" Kid Flash agreed.

"Let's go, shall we?"

* * *

**-1535 EDT, 4 July 2010; Project Cadmus, Washington D.C.-**

"This is Project Cadmus?! No wonder Batman's suspicious." Chaos said, as he casted a spell to let down the two scientists who had been trapped in the building.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked, running for the building with Chaos right beside him, "Care for a lift?"

Chaos nodded as he flew towards the window that exploded just before they arrived, the other floating behind him. "There's a large area underground being blocked from my telepathy and there's another calling for me. It's been there since Superman's alert earlier. I think the Martian also knew about it since he warned me not to do anything."

As they go through the window, Robin immediately went for the computer, plugged a cable to his minicomputer wristwatch. Aqualad and Chaos explored the floor while Speedy and Kid Flash went to scan through books in nearby bookshelves.

"There!" Chaos shouted, running for the elevator which was occupied by something humanoid but had large horns protruding from its head. He almost crashed to the closing elevator doors, however, but was able to stop himself by pivoting his forward movement to his feet and jumped then kicked the elevator door leaving a dent on it and landing several ways away from it, "Damn!"

"What was that?" Aqualad asked.

"Elevator's should be locked." Kid Flash commented.

"This is wrong, so wrong…" Robin said, pressing on the elevator's down button, but it didn't light up like it would normally. He checked his holographic computer, "Well that confirms it, there really is something below. And I think you've just seen one that we might see down there." he said, looking towards Chaos.

"Well, whatever. I'm going in if, you guys don't mind. I've already left an imprint here so we don't have to worry about being trapped." Chaos waved a hand towards the elevator door. He jumped down the shaft without a second thought, followed by the others.

"Robin, check for energy readings. I get the feeling there will be freaky things we should be expecting." Speedy said.

"I already did," Chaos said, he sounded grim, "There are more than a thousand life forms down there, and that's just counting the first fifty levels."

"What was that thing in the elevator?" Aqualad asked, "It looked human, but didn't feel like one, right?"

"You're right, it isn't, and I'm not entirely sure if we'd see one down there." Chaos added, as they passed through the thirty-sixth underground floor.

"You guys think forty-eighth floor is enough for us to information gathering?" Robin asked while looking at the holographic image his minicomputer is showing, "There's a large energy rating being contained there. I've already bypassed every security trips in the elevator that might get anyone informed of our presence here."

As they reached the forty-eighth floor, they floated to a stop, the elevator doors already open. They ran for what they thought were large thundering steps that were echoing down the hallway they entered. Kid Flash, being the fastest amongst the group, ran ahead of them and saw some things caused him to fall off balance. He rolled on to his side to avoid the gigantic fist set to crash down on him, and maneuvered himself out of the group of humungous marching alien-like… things.

"What the -?" Chaos began, then shut himself as what were presumably the heads of those things turned towards them, accompanied by some smaller things on the huge ones' shoulders. Luckily, they passed on without further more incidents and Chaos exhaled loudly. "Oh lucky! I made a camouflage on us on the way down!"

"What were those things?!" Kid Flash hollered.

"Well, now I know what's shielding this place from my telepathy." Chaos said, "Those little things could use an advanced form of telepathy, well, perhaps not advanced enough to reach Martian Manhunter's and my level, but still…"

"Just beyond this door, is the large energy rating I've detected earlier." Robin said while hacking his way through the security imposed on the door, "And we're in."

As they entered, all they saw were some kind of energy harvesting machines connected to what looked like electricity generating bugs, and it horrified them. "Hell." Speedy said, after one glance at the glass tanks containing the bugs.

"Eighty Gigawatts generated per minute," Robin said, still looking at the screen of his minicomputer, "Wow, this entire plant alone could supply power to the world and twice over!"

"As I said, hell." Speedy commented, "This must be how they were keeping themselves from the grid, by generating their own electricity. How is this even approved by the government, even with Luthor's position in office, there's no way this could've been kept out of sight."

"Well, that would be because it's not only the United States government that's keeping this ongoing. There are at least thirty other countries that's given their support, here look." Robin said, hacking through a control panel with his minicomputer, "Though I doubt they know what's actually in Project Cadmus. These creatures, called Genomorphs are genetically created with abilities similar to many super humans - telepathy, telekinesis, accelerated healing, super strength, super speed - They're building an army!"

"For who? Against what?" Aqualad asked, "Against what, presumably the League. For who, I doubt Lex would be alone in this, I doubt he has the resources to acquire the DNA of any of these creatures, even if he has the money."

"Someone from an alien race or a space mercenary, perhaps, but why?" Chaos asked.

"Anyways, I'm done downloading the data here. Once we get out of here, we should deliver this information to the League, I'm sure they have enough pull in the United Nations to shut this down." Robin said, then he got a pensive look on his face, "Though, there is one more thing I'd like to investigate here. There was an encrypted folder that goes by the name Project Kr."

"This place is already hidden from the world, why would they need to hide anymore information as such?" Kid Flash asked, "Well, that's certainly thrown me in a loop and more mysteries to solve! I'm all fired up, let's go have a look, shall we?"

* * *

**-1623 EDT, 4 July 2010; Level 52, Project Cadmus, Washington D.C.-**

"Well this is creepy." Chaos said as he stepped out of the elevator and came out to face a rather fleshy sort of fork, "Where the hell are we? The stomach of Galactus?!"

"Again, who is Galactus? I keep jumbling those names you toss at us." Kid Flash said.

"Hmmm? Oh, Galactus is this really weird cosmic being who eats planets for dinner." Chaos replied.

"Oh? I thought Galactus was that stretchy guy, but that's just… I don't know what to say, you come from a very weird world."

"I know, right?" Chaos replied, "Anyways, which way do you think it is, the small intestine or the large intestine?"

None got to answer, as a humanoid blue skinned creature with large horns appeared from the larger hallway, wearing a white outfit, presumably the same one they saw going down the elevator earlier. Without asking questions, the creature started levitating some tanks littering the ground and throwing them at the five teens. Chaos set a hasty magical shield before them while they tried to escape the oncoming tanks, possibly explosives.

"Wait! Wait!" Chaos shouted as the others went for the smaller pathway, "Why did you call us here!?" He got no answer as the creature continued throwing the tanks at the magical barrier. Instead of wasting his time with the Genomorph, he followed the others after sending a telekinetic wave at the blue skinned creature, not even checking if it was knocked out, down or back.

Chaos caught up with the rest of the group just in time before the reinforced electronic doors actually destroyed the tank put at the bottom of the door to halt the door from closing, a pointless act as Chaos had already marked the rest of the group with his teleportation seals, or as his father liked to call them, Flying Thunder God markers.

"So that's it!" Kid Flash exclaimed, "Big 'K', little 'R'! The atomic symbol for Krypton!"

"This really is past the line of morality, they're making a weapon out of Superman's, well… son." Aqualad commented, "Robin, hack."

"Those things above him are force-feeding him information, while the suit allows for him to absorb the same radiation anyone would get from the sun." Chaos added, "I'm going to shut those little things before they could wake him up, I doubt we'd be able to get something peaceful out of the guy if we allow anyone who's in charge to give any more commands. There, done."

The three Genomorphs' little horns lost their pink glow and slumped backwards. While the team were still a little wary of Chaos' powers, he had not given them any doubt as to whom his loyalties lie, he had not given them any reason to doubt him and he was just eager to prove himself. Robin, whose eyes remained behind his mask, cannot hide his shock as his eyebrows shot towards his hairline and his mouth going slack.

"Weapon designation: Superboy." Robin said as he got over his shock, "And get this, he's a clone force grown in sixteen weeks!"

"Well, what should we do?" Speedy asked, "We can't exactly leave him like this, we should set him free."

"And what if he attacks?" Chaos asked, getting the attention of the others, "I've been sifting through his memories and his knowledge of the Justice League aren't exactly the same as what you'd want him to think. If we are correct in thinking that Luthor's behind this, then I think it would be better if we'd use an inhibitor on him, or keep him unconscious, at least. I don't want to have to fight right now, just before the night I get my weekly training and meditation."

"You're right, Speedy. Robin, set him free. Be sure he is unconscious before he is released, Chaos. Kid, put an inhibitor on him as soon as possible." Aqualad said, practically ordered.

* * *

**-1625 EDT, 4 July 2010; Hall of Justice, Washington D.C.-**

"Whew. A good result for our first time together as a team, isn't it?" Kid Flash said, grinning from ear to ear. They had already sent a distress signal to the Justice League to meet back at the Hall of Justice, Superboy still unconscious and their self-assigned mission completely without any injuries. Chaos had, through his reality manipulation abilities, left a 'clone' of superman's clone in the capsule Superboy had been in and left for the second floor of Project Cadmus as soon as they secured Superboy, then ported back to the hall.

"Certainly. I'd have thought our success rate would have been lower due to the amount of uncertainty we've had but, we really did make a hundred percent success, didn't we?" Robin commented, while uploading data he downloaded from Cadmus' computers.

"Maybe you guys wouldn't be so happy if I told you that Martian Manhunter told the League we snuck behind their back to complete their mission for them?" At seeing their grins subside and turn into unhappy frowns, Chaos sighed, "Yeah, right. Never mind I said anything."

"How would he know what we did, and so what if we snuck on their backs?" Speedy asked with his right eyebrow raised.

"Well, as you already know, he also received that same telepathic call I had earlier. He had been tracking me ever since they left the hall, since you guys know how my track record is like for attracting and looking for trouble. So, when he lost track of me because I had cloaked us and were being mentally shielded by those Genomorphs, he told the League what I did, not that they could actually do anything about it. They'd been fighting Wotan and his reinforcements for hours and only an hour ago did they finish, so they're heading here now, probably to reprimand me again, and probably you guys, too."

"Nah, I think we'd be fine. Besides, if they found out about what we did, they'll probably even promote us from probationary to full members of the League!" said Kid Flash said with an excited gleam in his eyes.

"Not exactly." They heard from the automatic doors that was the entrance to the room, they turned to see Batman with majority of the League following him and walking towards them, "While your 'mission' as you say had gone off completely successful without a hitch, you still hacked Justice League's system, disobeyed a direct order from the League, and endangered not just your lives but many others as well you may not know of yet. Those are some things we cannot accept among our numbers."

"After all we've been through?!" Speedy shouted, exasperation clear in his voice, "We've proved ourselves to capable of missions done by the League, time and time again! We've tried to make you guys see that we are more than what you think of us, children. We thought that after today we'd already achieved your approval, yet you still see us as nothing like you guys, you still treat us as sidekicks, nothing more than support!"

"Yes, we think of you as children, because that is what you guys are, but do not, for one moment, say that we think you are nothing more than support. You are our partners, apprentices, and each of us has already acknowledged that you are capable of League missions, that's what we've trained you for." said Green Arrow.

"However, as you've proven today, you guys are still not ready. Not for the commitment, for the trust and for the responsibilities a member of the League is supposed to possess." Flash reprimanded.

"Then, when will we be ready? When we're already twenty-one? We know at least of you isn't! And yet you've let him into the team!" Speedy raged on.

"This has nothing to do with your age." said Aquaman, shocking the teens, "Long before today, we have already agreed to let into the League anyone of you who has had enough maturity for missions that the League takes, and it is clear none of you quite possesses that yet."

A full minute has gone silently, before Batman addressed them again, "Results will be reviewed later on, and I trust none of you will pull off this sort of thing ever again."

A snort escaped from Kid Flash that got the majority of the League's attention. Blushing lightly at being put in the limelight, Kid Flash explained, "We all know that's not going to happen with Chaos around. You should check his records again just to confirm we're talking about the same group of people here. We're not all exactly that much on following orders we think are unfair."

"Wally…" Flash warned.

"I'm sorry, but he is right. We'll keep doing things such as this until we have ourselves out of the cradle. We will keep defying orders as long as we can do something such as this to help, we do not need missions from the League, we can make some for ourselves. And if we have to hack the League's systems, then so be it." Aqualad said.

"Aqualad, stand down." Aquaman said.

"Apologies, my king, but no." Aqualad replied, earning a raising of eyebrow from his mentor, "I think we had enough of having to sit out of missions we clearly could do ourselves. We did good, and you would be able to confirm that by looking through the data we've gathered. This is the thing you've trained us to do. However, we can't do just that if you're restricting us from any work at all."

"Individually, we may not be able to do as much, but together, we've been able to do something… powerful." Chaos said, adding in his two cents, "I don't know whether it is right or wrong that you're forbidding us from taking any League missions because we did a mission on our own successfully behind your backs; but I think that it is wrong that you would stop us from doing what we were trained to do. We wanted to help the League anyway we can but if you're not going to let us, the abilities we've honed and acquired all these years would have been for nothing."

"Whether or not this is destiny, not that I believe in it, I think that we are entitled to at least be part of this group as much as you are. We want to make the world a better place as much as you guys do and we'd even sacrifice our lives to make it happen, if we have to." Robin said, not looking around to see the four others nod their heads in agreement, he didn't have to.

* * *

**-0804 EDT, 8 July 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

Standing before superheroes Aquaman, Batman, Black Canary, Flash, Red Tornado, and Captain Marvel are five teenagers-slash-superheroes in civilian clothes.

"This cave has been the original sanctuary of the Justice League, and we're calling it to service again." Batman began, "Since you five are determined to stay together, you'll do it on League terms. Red Tornado volunteered to live here as your supervisor, Black Canary is in charge of your training, I will deploy your missions."

"Real missions?" Dick asked. Not that anyone can see it but there is a very noticeable gleam of excitement in his eyes behind his sunglasses that he managed to keep out of his voice and facial expression.

"Yes, but covert." Batman answered, "As you've shown some affinity for it four days ago, we have decided to delegate to this team most of the missions that require stealth, and the like."

"The League will still handle the obvious stuff. There's a reason we have these big targets on our chests." Flash commented.

"But Cadmus proves that the bad guys are getting smarter. Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly." Aquaman added.

"The seven of you will be that team." Batman said.

"Oh, so he did agree…" Naruto said.

"He didn't take too much convincing, really. It's our side that took much time deciding whether or not the idea is viable." Flash answered.

"Wait, seven? Who're the other two?" Barry asked.

"Meet the Martian Manhunter's niece, Miss Martian." Batman said, looking behind the teens. They turned to see Martian Manhunter with a girl Martian, well at least Batman said she's a she, but considering the shape shifting physiology of Martians, it's hard to discern the truth.

"H-hi…" she said with a nervous wave towards the teenage boys. She was wearing an out fit much like her uncle, a blue cape, a white shirt with a red 'X' encompassing her torso, a blue skirt, blue boots and gloves, and some golden accessories.

"And I think some proper introductions will be in order for the seventh." Black Canary said, looking beyond the Martian duo, "This is Superboy, he hasn't yet decided on a civilian name, but I'm sure you guys can help him with that."

"Hello." he said gruffly. Wearing a simple black shirt with the Superman shield emblazoned on his chest, blue cargo pants, and black combat boots. "Thanks for getting me out there." he said, looking away from the rest.

"Eh, well… No prob. We're happy to help." Naruto said. "By the way, I'm Chaos; this here is Kid Flash," he said, pointing towards Wally, then to Dick, "Robin, Speedy, and Aqualad." he finished, motioning for the person as he said their superhero names.

"Welcome aboard." Wally said, walking towards Miss Martian, "You can forget their names, they're not that important." That caused an audible snort coming from Naruto and some sniggers from Dick, they were probably having a mental conversation amongst themselves.

"I am honored to meet you all." Miss Martian said, walking towards the rest of the group, past Wally, with Superboy following not far behind.

"Today is the day." Kaldur said, as Wally returned to their side, his hung down dejectedly.

Speedy scoffed, "Yeah, that's what we all thought four days ago." Though he tried to hide it, he couldn't help but show a small smile on his face.

* * *

**-1838 EDT, 8 July 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

"Now, now, Naruto, you've got to relax more than that. You won't be able to project your will in the astral plane if your mind is occupied by too many things at once." said Kent Nelson, in his usual attire, a black suit, leaning against his gold plated magical cane.

"Are we not going to talk about that vision I saw yesterday? I know that I'm not exactly a seer, but I had visions like this before." said Naruto, still in his civilian clothes, wearing a plain white tee, brown cargo shorts and green sneakers. Currently floating a meter on the air with his feet crossed under him, his face scrunched up with concentration and his eyes tightly shut. A frown made itself visible on his features as he opened his blue eyes, "You're not going to just accept this, are you?"

Kent sighed heavily, wrinkles in his forehead suddenly became more pronounced reminding Naruto of his mentor's age. "I don't know, Naruto. The more years I spend being myself and not the host of Nabu, the more I remember my beloved Inza. The more I want to cross the veil and reunite with her. I know that I have duties to the world and to you, but it just gets harder every year."

"If I could call her from beyond, I would. But as you said yourself, it is forbidden and the knowledge is lost in ages long past." Naruto said.

"I know. I think I'll stick around for little longer, until someone willingly takes the helmet off me." Kent said with a sad smile.

"You know how much Klarion would gladly do that for you…" Naruto joked, earning a slap on the back of his head, "OW!" he said with a laugh, joined by Kent a second later.

"If that does happen, well… You'll be there to stop him, should I not be, right?" Kent said as his laugh subsided and grew sober.

Naruto nodded solemnly, "Anyways, what's for dinner? We're not eating Chinese take-out again, are we?" Naruto asked brightly.

Kent scoffed, "Of course not, you younglings becoming part of the League, or at least probationary ones, is a cause for celebration!" he said with a malicious glint in his eyes, "Earlier today, I had gone out for groceries, and guess what I bought?"

Naruto's head snapped to look directly at Kent with a hungry look in his face, "Ramen!?" he exclaimed, then he noticed the malicious intent flowing off his master and groaned, "We're not having an all veggie feast again, right?"

Kent just cackled evilly and turned to leave the room to head towards the Dining area of the tower.

* * *

**-0800 EDT, 10 July 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

**"Recognized, Robin B-01. Recognized, Chaos B-02. Recognized, Kid Flash B-03. Recognized, Speedy B-05."** a metallic female voice, the voice of the Cave's technology interface, said as the Zeta tubes spun and light shone through it.

"Hello, guys!" M'gann greeted as the light stopped and the four members of the team in civilian clothes appeared before the tube. They waved happily, striding towards the center of the room where Superboy and Kaldur were sparring with each other, likely to assess each other's strengths, weaknesses and learn of their abilities.

Superboy was charging for Aqualad when the Atlantean sidestepped the moment Superboy was within arms reach, and used Superboy's outstretched arms to throw him back. Superboy skidded to a halt with his hands digging in to the tiled floor of the sparring area, addressed the four new arrivals with a curt nod and charged again for Aqualad.

"Hey Rob, wanna spar? I haven't had one since the third." Naruto said, bringing out a black sphere from the pocket of his bright orange hoodie. M'gann was surprised by this as there wasn't even a bulge in his pocket before he took it out and the sphere is almost as big as his head. She heard from the Martian Manhunter that Chaos is learned in the mystical arts, but the study of spatial manipulation -the only art she thought is capable of the feat Chaos just did- was an art that required at least a hundred years. It was a component of the special method that allows for Martian Manhunter to use density shifting, and here Chaos did just that without so much as a sweat.

"Sure. Just hand-to-hand and weapons." Robin answered. Out of all her team members, Robin is the least she knew about, M'gann doesn't even know about his real name. She would have tried accessing his mind but something stopped her, a powerful mental shield that she didn't know Martian Manhunter could be capable of; in fact, all of her team members possessed the same shields in their minds. Within the first hour of knowing the team, Chaos had reprimanded her for trying, telepathically. He told her to stay out of their minds unless they gave her permission to do so.

"Hey, Megan," Wally called, rather flirtatiously. While she's still new to human emotions and culture, she knew enough that the speedster is trying and failing to flirt with her. It was rather awkward for her to get a decent conversation out of him when she was talking with her, Chaos told her as much. "Want to give me a private tour around the base?"

"Stop it, Wally." Speedy, or Roy Harper said, looking on at Chaos and Robin as they prepared their spar. The most level-headed amongst the group, followed closely by Chaos, is someone of great interest to her, he does not take baits as often as the others, much like a silent strategist, Speedy only speaks mostly when asked and when he has brilliant ideas, if memories Chaos had shown her were anything to go by, and so far it only proves true. "If you do see that frown on her face, then you should know that your advances are unwanted."

At that, Wally glared at Roy, while M'gann flashed him a grateful smile, not that he could see it. Wally skulked off towards the other end of the sparring area Robin and Chaos occupied, right across Roy. Superboy and Aqualad came over where Miss Martian stood as they finished their spar to watch Robin and Chaos continue their own, and she couldn't help but feel warm at the close proximity with the two superheroes who had just finished their spar, possibly radiating some of the heat leaving their body from the adrenaline rush.

Silence permeated through the cave, leaving the sounds of the clashing steels of Robin's and Chaos' blades to echo across the cavernous hall. Chaos had just disarmed Robin of his katana, leaving Robin weaponless, but not defenseless. Chaos was watching Robin's blade sail through the air as Robin cocked his right fist for an uppercut when Chaos let go of his obsidian blade, and sidestepped Robin's assault. Robin was not finished however as he elbowed Chaos right in the cheek the swung his feet for Chaos' gut.

Finally getting tired of the silence amongst the group, Superboy asked, "So you're saying he was a close second when comes to strength in your group before I came in? Naruto, I mean."

"Yeah. He's a bit stronger than Wally and Robin, but he's still growing. From what I remember, his grandfather, from whom he gained his enhanced physiology, could punch through a concrete wall. I don't think he'll ever come near you strength level, but with the help of his telekinesis, I actually think he might." Kaldur explained, "He showed us that the clan he hailed from had been an ancient line of superhuman psychics and there used to be a woman who could, with a single punch, create an earthquake with Magnitude 6 through a concentrated telekinetic force and released at the point of contact. That same woman was even able to lift the Mount Fuji, in his world, and hurl it at a sentinel, this mutant hunting robot they had in their world."

"Wow." Miss Martian said quietly. She never thought her telekinesis could be used in that way, and never thought she could have had the potential, but from what she knew, some people from Chaos' home world are ridiculously strong, particularly the one he called 'Jean Grey' with that 'Phoenix' empowering her. However, what worried her more was not Chaos' potential with telekinesis, no, it was his potential in the mystical arts. The High Priests and Priestesses she met in Mars didn't have the same amount of magical energy stored away in their bodies, and from what she had heard, he has even more potential than this universe's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Fate.

"Well, of course he would still have a lot of time before he can reach that potential, he's still growing, after all." Roy added, then added in a drawling manner, "Veeerrrrrryyyyy sssssllllllooooowwwwwllllllyyyyyy."

At Superboy's questioning expression, Kaldur explained, "Again, with his unique physiology that his father and grandfather had, their aging had been slightly stunted to two-fifths of a regular human's. If you want, you can read his file in the system, he's not really that secretive about his life, unlike Robin."

"Although it's not yet been tested with him, he had speculated that he won't be able to age beyond twenty-one. It was true with his father, as after ten years following Naruto's birth, he hadn't aged one bit, though the same had happened with his mother." Roy added, shocking Miss Martian and Superboy, "It's sad, really. That's why he wants to get back to his home so that he could be with people like him."

Miss Martian and Superboy nodded slowly. Trying to veer off the topic of Naruto's retarded aging, Miss Martian asked the question that's been nagging her, "What about magic, though? He said he's the apprentice to the host of Doctor Fate, and I sense that he has a large amount of mystical energy concentrated in his body."

"You are right. He's our team's resident magical expert followed by Kaldur, though I don't know now that you're in the team. Martian Manhunter has a fair amount of knowledge in the mystical arts, but what about you?" Speedy asked, finally turning his head to look at Miss Martian.

"I… um, well… I had studied a few tomes detailing the arts and had met our planet's High Priests and Priestesses, but I haven't really gone in depth. I'm only just starting my studies shortly before I came here."

"If you ask him, I'm sure Naruto will gladly help anyway he can." Kaldur assured her.

The spar between Chaos and Robin ended with both of them on the ground, panting loudly. Only a few seconds later, Chaos stood, moving towards Robin and extended his hand to help the downed teen up. "Nice feint, if it weren't for me being able to think of multiple things at once, my torso would be missing its lower limbs…"

"You sure you just didn't use your telepathy to know what I was going to do?" Robin asked with a strained chuckle, his hands on his knees. Naruto held his hand out towards the towel rack and a couple of towels floated towards them and used one to wipe the sweat off his face, while the other dropped down on Robin's head, "Thanks."

"Well, I'll be taking a shower, guys. See ya later."

Miss Martian raised an eyebrow at that, "He already knows where the rooms and shower areas are?"

"Well, of course. He and Robin had been trained by Batman. They both probably had already memorized the blueprints of this place." Roy answered, "Not that it's much of a compliment as I had also looked into the blueprints of this place and I'm pretty sure Wally just did what he did earlier to flirt with you."

Looking towards, Wally who is currently in a conversation with Robin, Miss Martian said, "Though I admire the effort, I think I'd have to shut him down before he gets too serious with this."

"I'm pretty sure he already knows you aren't anywhere near reciprocating his ill-begotten affections, but he'll keep trying anyways… until he finds someone else he could divert his attentions to." Kaldur said with Roy nodding in the affirmative.

"I would also caution you against turning down his feelings. That would most likely result in him taking it as a challenge and you may find him even more annoying." Roy added to which M'gann sighed heavily.

Several minutes passed as the group took their conversations in the kitchen and related the differences in their cultures in Atlantis, the rest of Earth, Mars and what Naruto had shared of his world.

"So you're saying that in his world, there is also an underwater kingdom called Atlantis, ruled by someone named Namor, instead of your King Orin, who is part of a group called Avengers that is their world's counterpart of the Justice League?" Miss Martian asked, her voice getting higher by the second.

"I know, right." Naruto said, entering the kitchen with a towel draped on his head, "I mean, what are the odds that the rulers of my and your world's Atlantis would be part of groups that are very similar in purpose and structure?"

"And there are also other things I had just realized some months ago, your world's Iron Man is basically our world's Batman, remove the brooding attitude and stealth training. They're both owners of very wealthy corporations, they're both very intelligent, and they're both incredibly tech savvy." said Wally.

"Now that you said it, yeah, they really are." Naruto said with a nod, "Though, how did you know that I know who the Bat is? And how did you know who he is?"

"It's not really that hard to figure out who he is, considering all the amount of equipment he seems to have a f*** load of, it was just a matter of minutes to connect the dots. As for how I knew that you did, did you forget the first time we all met while keeping our head low, and you just stared at him, your jaw hanging for about half a minute and you kept pointing at him?"

"Oh, that." Naruto said, quietly, then added, "At least he managed to keep his identity for our first personal meeting while I figured who Superman is without even using my telepathy! Seriously though, how can the people not get it!"

The others just shrugged at that, with Robin saying, "People can't see what they don't want to."

"Eh, well…" Naruto started, but can't think of anything else to say so he turned towards Wally who seemed to be bursting with energy, same as always.

"Anyways, off topic. When do you guys think our first official mission will be, and what?" he asked, but not awaiting anyone's reply as he answered his own question, "I really hope we'd get to fight some tough guys, like, you know, some bad ass android capable of copying powers!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, but said nothing. That type of android would be a very advanced one, years and years into the future of his world's study in robotics. There are those he knew capable of creating such an object, but wouldn't due to certain other examples that the superheroes fought over and over. There is a very great risk should the creation of an android with the capabilities of replicating superhuman abilities, such as the ever debatable question: what if its artificial intelligence evolves and allows for itself self-reprogramming? It's already happened with Ultron.

He must have stayed too quiet during the conversation as M'gann asked, "Naruto? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I was just thinking how much of a disaster would be done if Wally's ideal enemy were to actually happen." he said nonchalantly, "There were some things that happened back in my world that the creation of a similar being leading to a future full of destruction, desolation and the lot. They even sent themselves to the past to exterminate us, mutants. Luckily, it didn't last long and the portal was closed."

"Sorry for giving such a terrible, terrible thing." Wally said, a deep frown seated on his face.

"It's fine. Luckily, that idea didn't get to the head of my friend, if he were to actually hear that, it might just be possible." he said, thinking of Franklin Richards, whose uncontrolled cosmic-based reality manipulation abilities brought forth some terrible consequences, though they were easily fixed after he put his mind into it. Then, there was the other, more powerful, reality warping mutant whose abilities were deeply based in magic, not cosmic, like his and Franklin's.

"What? What do you mean by that?" M'gann asked, with a look of consternation.

"You doubt would really believe it, if said it, but I'll just say it anyway." Naruto said, "When we were much younger, I was maybe seven or six, well technically sixteen, but whatever, I was mentally seven or six, and he was eight. We had this crazy idea to create entire universes in our minds and compare them. I know, like I said, it's crazy, and we were kids. Anyways, it was that time we were told about the truth on the nature of our abilities, after several days because some people from those universes came over to our world with a plan to dominate the galaxy. That time, we unconsciously shut that part of our abilities off, well that's just me, Franklin practically made himself a normal human after that."

Naruto looked around the others to see their expressions of horror, shock and awe, as he continued. "Months after that, I had continued my magical training to the more advanced arts, becoming an apprentice of our world's Sorcerer Supreme, and the reality warping abilities slowly came back. This time, I didn't know I was doing it until Doctor Strange told me so after he noticed that not all the energy I was using were magical in nature, and he aided me in controlling it further. I'm not sure if I would still be able to subconsciously do it without the magic, Doctor Fate did say that there was something always radiating from, and it's not something magical."

"Say, if um…" Wally started, embarrassment clear on his features, "If you could have that much power do you think it possible for you to just, you know, magically create world peace?"

"Of course, not that I know how to. There's another mutant I know with reality warping abilities that caused millions of mutants to become normal humans with, I think, three words: 'No more powers.' Yeah, I think that's what she said. The adults don't really talk about it. Anyways, after she said that, they called that day the 'M-day', only approximately two hundred mutants were left in our world until recently. Her powers are much more refined than mine or Franklin's but the thing about her is that she's insane, or was. In other matters, do you really want to fight that android you were talking about earlier? 'Cause if my guess is right and my powers really are working subconsciously, it could have already been built or construction is starting. Please don't give me anymore ideas like that. I've tried hard to suppress this side of me, but I guess I can't really stop it."

"Eh?" Wally said. While the others started to panic, they've known Naruto to be serious most times, not once had he joked about something as dire as this, and as freaky his powers were, they believed it.

Naruto sighed, "Anyways, I have some suggestions for training!"

"What? What is it?" Kaldur asked warily.

"Well, the team my mom and dad were part of, called the X-men, had this really awesome room called Danger Room they used to simulate missions. They said it's almost as if they were fighting real people and just holographic images, they could even touch them. I've never really been in it 'cause I'm too young to be part of the team but mom gave me some of her memories in it, it was intense!"

"Danger Room? That name kind of gives me the creeps especially after hearing your bizarre stories of creating a universe and comparing notes about it with another child. But anyways, can't you do it with your super extra special powers?" Wally asked.

"Like I said, I haven't really been there and I've been trying to suppress that side of me as I don't know how to control it and I don't really know what kind of consequences there would be if I tried. If it can't be done normally, I'd suggest connecting our minds and going to a dream state, like do you know that movie, The Matrix?"

"Matrix?" Robin asked.

"Oh, right. I'm from a different world." Naruto sighed, "If only father were here, I'm sure he'd think of something…"

"Ummm… Well, off topic. What's for lunch? I'm starving!" Wally said.

"Almost forgot!" Naruto said. He thrust his hand which was then surrounded by a glowing blue circle. The air seemed to swirl in front of him and the center widened to reveal some kind of portal and out came a huge box covered in an orange silk which Naruto caught with both hands as the portal vanished without a trace. He put the box on the table, "I've been trying to copy mom's homemade bento before with magic, but that didn't quite work out so I made one manually, copying from memory then multiplied it with magic, so here it is! Hope you guys like it!"

He untangled the knotted silk to reveal two columns of four stacked black bento boxes and let a box float towards the others, one for each teammate, while he took two. They opened the boxes to reveal a neatly arranged assortment of cuisine, four fried tiger prawns, five salmon sushi's, five onion rings, five squid rings, a layer was revealed under to show wasabi, Worcestershire sauce, vegetables and white rice. Off to the side, separate from the food were a pair of ivory chopsticks.

They ate their lunch with Robin teaching and Wally teasing Kaldur, M'gann and Superboy about how to use the chopsticks. Naruto and Roy watched on in amusement, both contemplating about how unexpectedly pleasant their situation was despite the disappointment they showed towards the League's non-acceptance of their application to be full-time members.

* * *

**END CHAPTER**


	2. Challenge

Dialogue types:

_"Telepathic Communication"_

**_"Radio Communication/Nonhuman telepathic communication"_**

**"Nonhuman Speaking"**

"Regular Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Young Justice, those titles, together with characters present in the stories, are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and DC comics, respectively.

* * *

**-0910 EDT, 18 July 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"C'mon, you guys! Let's do this!" Naruto whined.

"Are you sure about this? There some very disturbing things you will see if we really do continue what we are about to do." M'gann said hesitatingly.

"Yeah, I'm sure. You don't have to hide who you are, Megan. Just because you are not like us, doesn't mean we'll stop treating you like we do now." Naruto said, encouragingly.

"Well, if you're sure…" M'gann said, still doubtful despite Naruto's assurances.

"Now, just step in the circle you're designated to be in and I'll cast the spell. Should you be killed in this exercise, you'll just return to this plane, no harm done. Except, maybe any mental and emotional trauma you'd experience in it. Physically, you'll be just as you are now." Naruto explained as each of them got in one of the six small circles, formed of strange writings, surrounding a large circle made of the same strange writings with Naruto sitting at the center.

With the help of Doctor Fate who had studied the seals which Naruto used for his more special and less mundane activities that couldn't be done with regular runes, Naruto had been able to recreate Danger Room. They'd be connected mentally to Naruto's magically created Reality Mansion, some sort of cross between an alternate reality and the astral plane. Here, Naruto is, basically, God. A single thought in his mind could change the entire landscape, the flow of time, and even the logic of the realm. Here, they'd make an exercise to challenge themselves as the team needed teamwork and were getting bored at not doing anything, well the other day might have given them something if Chaos didn't automatically took care of the threat before the rest arrived.

The circle started to glow as Naruto chanted lightly, a light blue barrier shimmered into existence around the circles, and within half a minute, the team were in a trance. In their minds, they appeared together, looking wildly at the place they were in, a beach full of people sun bathing, with them in their costumes even though they weren't before Naruto did the spell. The sun shined brightly at them as the sea sent waves towards the bay. Out in the water, more than a hundred splashed and swam merrily.

"Hello." They heard from behind them, they turned to see Naruto wearing a light green board shorts, a white button-up shirt, wooden sandals and sunglasses. "Well, here we are. My Reality Mansion, it doesn't really look like a mansion, but the first time I've been here, I was in a mansion, much like the X-mansion but since we're here for your exercise, well, that's that. Anyways, this is level one," he said, pointing his right index finger up, and the rest looked up to see solid orange letters saying 'Level 1', "First lesson, is to evacuate and protect civilians before the tsunami and the hurricane hits the shore."

He looked them up and down and said, "Well, that won't do. We're supposed to be as inconspicuous as possible, and besides, it's not like we'd just turn up somewhere knowing what about to happen. Imagine, we were out here like the rest of the people and were just supposed to have fun, not combat some villains or avoid a disaster." As he said that, their clothes were changed to something similar to what Naruto was wearing board shorts and thinly woven button- up shirts for the boys, then a bikini for Miss Martian covered by a large tank top. To add effect to the supposed 'blending in', Miss Martian's green complexion turned pale, like the rest of the humans in the team.

"Right, several more seconds before the surge hits and I still have some pointers. I won't be around for the duration of the exercise, I can't concentrate on making this as realistic as possible if I'm with you. Next, try to be subtle when using those special abilities, Batman told me as much if we're going to be doing this in public. Lastly, I think, you guys better come up with a leader. That's it, I'm up and good luck!" He vanished as he said those last words.

"Okay… I know we've talked about this before, but I'm overwhelmed." Wally said as he watched the sky darken every second, covering the sun. People started to point out towards the horizon and some had panic going through around them.

"I don't know about you guys, but we better start having the people clear the beach." Speedy said, going towards the nearest laid sunbathing couple who had just woken up.

"Right, I'll try to hold back the water as much as I can, I won't stop it, not that I can, but as Naruto said, we'll have to stay inconspicuous." Aqualad said, "Megan, can you cloak me telepathically so people won't notice me as much as people would have?"

"I can, but I can only do that for one person. I haven't really practiced much of my telepathic abilities."

"That's enough." Aqualad said as he began large strides towards the water.

Kid Flash zipped to and fro around the beach, waking the people who thought attributed him as merely a gust of wind as they watched the sky continue to darken. Those who were in the beach then started to back off towards the shore while those on land either began packing their things or shouting names. The shouting was drowned by the loud rumbles of thunder accompanied by flashes of lightning and screams tore out of the beach and all chaos began to erupt in the normally joyous location.

"Megan, can't you do something to counteract this wind?" Robin shouted, as he tried to help an old woman close the large umbrella but was failing miserably as the wind swept across the land and dust was blown up increasing the ever growing panic of the people.

"I can't! I have to concentrate on cloaking Kaldur, at least until he could go under water!" she replied back, looking over at the path Aqualad was taking. Kid Flash still tore around the beach by knocking off the flying projectiles off the air which were threatening to hit the people around, with Speedy helping out some by hurling some things in the paths of the offending picnic and food materials. Superboy was off into the distance, pushing against a bus which was threatening to fall over to the sandy lower levels of the beach.

"Well, people won't mind him now, they would be more concerned about their survival!"

At this, Megan hesitated as she looked on at Kaldur's swimming form, but released her hold on the cloak and turned her attention towards the gusts of wind terrorizing the beach goers. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to calm the raging winds as the rain began to fall in large droplets, the large wave continuing on its path towards the shore.

Of the hundreds that had once been lying on their backs, enjoying the sun, or swimming through the cool waters of the sea, only sixty-three remained and none of them were having any second thoughts on leaving, the only problems they had were getting their vehicles started. Some were in a state of panic, unable to think carefully to drive their chosen vehicles, while some were having technical difficulties in their engines and such. Assisted by Speedy, Robin and Kid Flash, majority of the beach goers managed to vacate the area before several lightning bolts struck the water. Superboy, meanwhile, was with Miss Martian assisting her in anyway he can, like keeping her on her feet as she struggled against the chaotic winds.

Looming ever closer, the oncoming wave, Robin calculated, was at least twenty feet high, two miles in length and about thirty more seconds will pass before it hits land. He ran towards the disguised Martian who joined them at the elevated road, leaving the vehicle to the driver he'd elected to aid.

"Miss Martian, can you connect us mentally?" he asked. He needed to get that information to Aqualad as fast as possible.

"Ever since Naruto cast the spell, we've all been connected."

As she said that, Robin relayed his recalculated information to Aqualad to which the Atlantean replied, _'Yes, I've heard. It may not be as clear to you, but I've been able to hear your unfiltered thoughts as I've gone underwater.'_

Several seconds passed and they heard Aqualad's grunt of exertion as they saw the wave falter, become smaller and slowed on its path. The wind in quite a considerable distance off the shore began to pick up, swirled up in the clouds, totally unnoticed by the group as the rain came down harder. By the time the wave actually hit the shore, it was just strong enough to crash to the pavement, barely reaching up to their ankles. The water receded back to the sea while the wind continued to become chaotic, the rain continued to fall harder as the temperature began to lower.

"Now what?" Superboy asked. He thought that with the threat of the tsunami done and over with, they'd be finished with the exercise. They got the surprise of their life however as several lightning bolts seemed to target them. At that Naruto appeared by them, a light blue barrier shimmered around them, and a frown etched on his face as he gazed at the sky.

"Well this is a complication I never thought would come up." he mused. He thrust his arm out towards the sea, and for a few minutes, nothing seemed to happen, until Superboy saw a speeding Aqualad towards them, seemingly unconscious. "He's passed out from exertion. And I think we'd better get out of here, I don't think you guys are ready to face her."

Aqualad passed through the barrier while another lightning bolt struck against Naruto's barrier. The next they saw was the cave, most of them panting, as the last they remembered was that the air in the barrier they were in vanished, like a vacuum appeared and siphoned all air. They were still in the magical circle Naruto drew up but the barriers around them were already gone.

"Anyways, congratulations, guys! You've passed the first level!" Naruto exclaimed brightly. The others smiled weakly at that.

"That's your first level?" Wally asked. "I'm pretty sure that level would've been up in the hierarchy, like thirty at least!"

"Nah, I've run this through with Doctor Fate and Batman the other day, they said this'd be fine as a first level." Naruto said as he stood up and the magical writings began to glow golden for a second then vanished. "Anyways, I was told to give Batsy a report of your performances."

He began to leave when Robin asked, "Wait, who was that 'her' you've mentioned earlier? Is that the complication you were talking about?"

"Yeah, that'd be Storm, a member of the X-men, and one of mom's best friends. She would be counted high up in the challenges I'd listed up, maybe sixty or above, especially that she was near the water."

"Well, hmmm… what would your level one hundred be, then?" Speedy queried.

"I don't think a combat situation would suffice a level one hundred… I thought maybe something like 'convince Joker to stop scheming or to stop all his madness', yeah. Something like that, but then, where would I get a mind like his?"

"And level Ninety-nine?" Superboy asked, not quite getting around the idea of Naruto's mission difficulty.

"Well, that'd be… another combat situation added with the complication of survival out in space or in a planet full of hostiles, whichever. I'll run them through with Batman or the rest of the League anyways before I get to test you guys."

"That's crazy, man!" Kid Flash said while the others nodded their heads in agreement.

"Hey, at least you guys won't have to go through a situation of being trapped in an island with a portal spewing out an infinite number of really intelligent robots." Naruto said, then a frown appeared on the faces of his teammates as he contemplated on something, "Now that I think about it, I think I'll actually add that… maybe level eighty-six?"

The others paled at that as Aqualad groaned, coming to consciousness. Chaos left without another word to let the rest of the team recuperate after Naruto's first level exercise.

"What… What kind freak show world did he actually live in? To say that I'm whelmed and twice over would be an understatement right now." Robin said, getting to his feet.

The others followed his example, stretching their bodies, with Superboy helping Aqualad up. "What do you guys think would be the next level?" Aqualad asked.

"I don't know… Stopping a volcano eruption, maybe?" suggested Superboy.

"Oh, don't you dare give him any ideas!" Wally grumbled. They moved towards the kitchen area where they knew a feast was setup for them, courtesy of Chaos.

* * *

**-2008 ECT, 22 July 2010; Caribbean Sea-**

"Approaching Santa Prisca, estimated arrival time, five minutes." Robin announced from his side of Miss Martian's bioship.

"I still say we should install that new software I've made in this ship. I know I'm not the best programmer here, but at least it could help us with the missions." Chaos said, at the front of the ship, "I've studied several operating systems like Iron Man's and Batman's and my dad's. It may not be perfect yet but as you've seen in the cave, it's awesome!"

"We've been through this, Chaos. We know it's awesome, but if Miss Martian says no, then no." Speedy reprimanded, hand on his bow complete with his costume now in a grayscale version of his regular one. "Though, I've got to admit, those systems you've studied were incredible."

"I know. Iron Man's holographic interface was the one dad studied and used to create his own, linking it to his magic, his own body, and the technology around him. I just used my memory of how he actually connected the technology with the magic, and nothing else, I don't really have technopathy so that's useless for me and connecting something to my body, even if just to monitor it is something I'm not yet sure would be a good idea. I mean, what if someone hacks through it?" he babbled, "Then there's Batman's brilliant supercomputer built in a compressed piece of technology, just brilliant! Even the greatest inventors in my world had problems doing that, or maybe they already did. I still have no idea how to go about the systems in the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the Danger Room and Cerebro are extremely efficient in doing what they were made for."

"I'm sorry, Naruto. It's just that I'm not yet sure how that would affect the bioship and me. Please give me more time, to, ummm…, test it." Miss Martian said.

"Fine, I'll study this bioship and its connection with you further, then you'll have to accept its pure awesomeness. In the mean time, I think I'll increase the cave's magical defenses."

"Thank you." Miss Martian said, "The first drop zone will be in thirty seconds, Aqualad?"

"Ready." Aqualad replied. He stood up, pressing the buckle of his belt, changing the color of his costume into a grayscale version.

"Putting the bioship in camouflage mode. Chaos?" Chaos simply nodded, a hole opened before Aqualad, "Drop Zone in five, four, three, two, one."

Aqualad jumped into the hole, to take of his part of the mission. Chaos followed shortly after, to disable the invisible air defense systems.

"Second Drop Zone in forty seconds." Speedy announced as they heard Aqualad's and Chaos' confirmation that the island's external defenses have been taken care of. The five superheroes stood, gathering to the still open hole Aqualad and Chaos exited through. Kid Flash activated the stealth version of his suit through the insignia emblazoned on it -a red lightning bolt with a white circular background. Superboy, meanwhile had his own version of a stealth suit, a black shirt, cargo pants and combat boots. On both sleeves of his shirt were Superman's red 'S' shield.

"How cool is this!" Kid Flash exclaimed.

"Yes, we're all aware how amazing this new function the suits provide." Robin drawled, "We've got an official mission. Let's go!"

Kid Flash, Speedy, and Robin jumped through the hole without further aid as they had discussed with Chaos and Miss Martian that either of them would aid them in landing, without any harness. Superboy, who had been reluctant at giving others control over his body, was provided with a floating disc after a very tense discussion with Batman that as their mission is a covert one, they needed to be discreet and wouldn't be successful in that endeavor if any of them were to cause any sort of seismic activity, no matter how small, as Superboy had often demonstrated when he jumped. Miss Martian followed them out of the bioship, while hiding in a camouflage, assisting their descent with her telekinesis.

_**"Aqualad, we have landed. We'll head for the factory. Meet us on the cliff overlook, as planned."**_ Chaos said through the intercom as he touched down beside Miss Martian. They had agreed that they would only resort to using telepathy when they have no other choice, something that was suggested by Robin when Naruto was taken in as another of Batman's apprentice and was wholeheartedly accepted by the team. They began their trek when Chaos noticed some readings behind his mask. "There are several energy signatures ahead, probably patrols. Switch to infrared."

"We've got two squads, coming in from opposite sides." Kid Flash said, "Both parties armed. At least ten individuals on each group."

They heard gunshots as they saw the parties cross paths with each other. At this point, Chaos, Speedy, and Robin had disappeared from the group. _**"We're on the trees, follow if you wish, but be as discreet as you possibly can."**_ They heard Chaos through the intercom. Following Miss Martian, Kid Flash and Superboy ran through the thick jungle where Chaos, Speedy and Robin supposedly were in.

"There!" Superboy hissed quietly, glaring at the hidden figures of the three observing teens.

"You guys know we should always stick together." Kid Flash said as he caught up with the three, swinging upward to sit by a branch near Robin's.

"No we don't. We were here for reconnaissance and I could've always sent you guys a mental image if you wanted to know. Besides, if you actually did see the situation, I have no doubt you would have jumped at the first chance to interfere. Then again, I myself am doing that so I can't really say that." Chaos said, with his hand extended, pointing towards the clearing where the two groups were shooting at each other.

"Interfering, how?" Superboy asked.

"We, the three of us, at least," Robin began, gesturing towards himself, Speedy and Chaos, "were trained to use subtle means to subdue possible hostiles if we were ever in a undercover or recon mission. If we'd known there would be patrols on the way to the factory, I could have setup some traps. That's what I was trained to do, at least. Speedy would have been able to shoot some special arrows, if these guys were normal thugs. So, that's why only Chaos is able to do his thing. He's been trained to do this kind of thing since he was six, due to certain circumstances you might've already known."

"Okay, how can we help, then?" Miss Martian asked. She might have the patience to allow things to pass but if there're things she might be able to do, she would have right away.

"Nothing right now. Just keep quiet, they're almost done." Chaos replied. "We'd likely have to train for more of these things."

Chaos then jumped down from the tree quietly, followed by the others. "We've been cloaked, haven't we?" Robin asked when they came near the thugs who seemed to be unaware of their presence.

Chaos nodded, "It was a risk I took when I interfered with their shootout, no matter how subtle. I could have compromised the mission if I didn't." All the most thugs were on the ground, unconscious, except for one who was wearing a black and white mask, the super villain they knew to be Bane. He was being surrounded by glowing blue runes as he scanned his surroundings. "These guys have no mental defenses setup automatically at all." Chaos snickered behind the mask, "Most people from my world had learned a long time ago that leaving oneself mentally defenseless is a very grave mistake. There were some telepaths that had left their enemies catatonic, insane or dead, some capable of doing that to everyone in the planet in a minute."

The others just took most those information in stride, mostly thanking Chaos for making psychic shields on their minds and thankful to lady luck that he wasn't amongst the bad guys. Aqualad arrived at the clearing, and after a brief explanation from Kid Flash, asked, "Found out what we need?"

"Yes." Chaos answered, "However it looks like we're going to have to stick around a little more. The Cult of the Kobra," he gestured towards the red cloaked masked men, "have driven out the ones who normally operated this factory. I don't have any further information on why, that's all I could gather from their memories. Whatever reason the Cult had, we'd probably find out more tonight, their buyer will be here in about an hour. Identity's unknown."

"Supplier?" Robin asked, "That's right! These cultists aren't on Venom, but why would they take over this factory if they weren't going to make use of the formula?"

"Maybe they just didn't want to waste money on equipment and the one here would be perfect for whatever they're making?" Kid Flash suggested.

Speedy scoffed, "Unlikely. The Cult of the Kobra is in an alliance with the League of Shadows, and this group's not like some regular gang. Their stash could most probably rival the vault of one of Gotham's drug lords."

"Could be that they're using Venom in conjunction with another to make a more powerful bioweapon?" Chaos asked, that idea got the others shuddering at the thought.

"Whatever the reason, we won't find any answers if just dally around here. Let's push on to the factory." Aqualad said.

"There is an underground tunnel to the west, if that helps. It goes all the way towards the factory." Miss Martian said, after being quiet for so long.

* * *

**-2116 ECT, 22 July 2010; Venom Factory, Santa Prisca Island-**

"Mission's compromised, now what?" Chaos asked, mulling over choices they were presented. They had been discovered after a very subtle mental jamming device was activated and the psychic cloak he had on the team had been blown. Long story short, there were some pretty large bruises and broken bones on the bodies of cultists, Kobra nowhere to be found and the mysterious buyer being forewarned of the team's presence on the factory. They were able to find out that the cultists were making a Blockbuster-Venom formula. Chaos had already sent a message for Batman to send a team or a transport that would gather the current and former occupants of the factory to be sent to prison.

Blockbuster was one of the heavily encrypted files Robin had been able to download from Cadmus' systems but unable to decrypt. All this could be a very elaborate plan going on between multiple parties, mainly Cadmus board of directors, the Cult of the Kobra and, presumably, the League of Shadows. The previous project head of Cadmus, Dr. Desmond, and the current one, Guardian, had been unable to inform the League of the identities of the main contributors of the project, not having met them personally and, since the exposure of Cadmus' nature to the public, the main contributors had cut off their ties from it.

"How about we blow up this place? We've already gathered a sample of the formula and all data present from their computers." Superboy said.

"That was something I was hoping we'd avoid as much as possible, but now that we were discovered, we might as well. We can't let anyone operate here anymore, especially if the data we've just gleaned were to be believed and after the recent appearance of someone who was probably injected with it." Aqualad said.

"Okay, here are some bombs I've got." Chaos said, taking out several papers with seals drawn on it then handing them to Kid Flash, "Just put them wherever, and I'll activate them once we've cleared this place."

Aqualad, Chaos, Miss Martian, Robin, Speedy and Superboy took the unconscious cultists while Kid Flash busied himself on setting the paper bombs Chaos had provided. As they did so, Robin commented, glancing at Kid Flash's blurring form, "Look at him go. Years ago, he'd carefully denied the existence of magic, thinking them petty tricks made from advanced technology. Now, he just accepts it without question. It's very amusing to watch."

"Yeah. Took some time convincing, but he did come around eventually. He no longer questions the impossibility and just lets it go without explanation." Chaos chuckled.

"What made him though? I was pretty sure that week was very weird, he was muttering to himself and refusing to talk to anybody else. He was pretty much insane at the time." Speedy said.

"That's for him to tell, not me. I'm not sure, but I think it was a very harrowing experience for him." Chaos said mysteriously.

Several minutes of hauling or levitating and tying unconscious bodies was later ended with Chaos activating his paper bombs resulting in the collapse of the factory walls and fires spewing out of the rubble followed by miniscule but powerful explosions that left nothing of the place except craters. In the landing platform were the roped bodies of cultists and Bane with his band of thugs. There, they waited for transport vehicle Batman sent for them, while Miss Martian's bioship hovered overhead.

Minutes passed and a military chopper arrived, fully waking the stirring thugs. Once it landed, they immediately transferred the tied up drug dealers onto the wide space provided by the vehicle. Chaos volunteered to join escorting them while the rest of the team headed back to base where they are going to report the results of the mission.

* * *

**-0800 EDT, 25 July 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

**"Recognized, Robin B-01. Recognized, Kid Flash B-03. Recognized, Aqualad B-04."** said the metallic female voice attributed to the Zeta-Tubes' systems. They were talking animatedly with each other but stopped immediately once they took in the scene happening before them.

Out in the sparring area were Chaos, Miss Martian, Speedy and Superboy, having a two on two battle - Chaos and Speedy versus Miss Martian and Superboy. Miss Martian and Speedy were off standing behind their teammates, presumably supporting with their respective abilities, while Chaos and Superboy were engaged in close combat. Speedy shot an arrow towards Superboy which then stopped midair only for it to release a large amount of smoke clouding the combatants' forms.

Miss Martian raised her hand to rapidly disperse the smoke only to be stopped when she sensed another arrow, now speeding towards her. She tried to stop the arrow's trip but found herself unable to so she opted to dodge it by flying upwards and going for camouflage mode. She scanned the area, trying to locate Speedy, finding him preparing to knock another arrow. Instead of trying to halt Speedy's attempt, and chose to disperse the smoke covering their blonde and raven haired teammates.

The three were surprised that Speedy shot off a flash bomb but the combatants didn't stop regardless. They switched to using their other enhanced senses. As Superboy swung his arm for Chaos' gut, Chaos jumped and flipped over Superboy then stomped on his upper back. Superboy stumbled down and then when Chaos was about to make another kick on his back when Superboy grabbed his swinging foot and tossed him over where he knew Speedy was at. Chaos hit Speedy and they were both thrown out of the sparring ground, ending the session.

"That was anticlimactic." Kid Flash commented.

Chaos and Speedy groaned as they struggled to get back up. Miss Martian floated down as she heard the call for the end of the spar. She kept her eyes closed, struggling to take back her sight. Superboy, Robin and Kid Flash went for Miss Martian when they saw her yet to open her eyes. Aqualad went the other way, towards Chaos and Speedy who were discussing tactics and how they could have won the spar.

"It'll take a few more minutes before you regain your sight." Robin said as he neared the Martian, "Naruto only really had been able to make use of his eyes now because he had enhanced healing. We were just far enough that it would only affect us less than you were."

"Anyways, congratulations." Kid Flash said to Superboy, then turned to Miss Martian, "You know, if you would allow, I'd like to have a two on two with you next time."

"Me?" Miss Martian asked, which Kid Flash answered yes, "Okay, but who'd your partner be? Naruto had already volunteered himself earlier, I thought we'd be great working together, considering our similar powers. We just needed to work on teamwork, tactics and strategy."

"Oh, um… I…" Kid Flash frowned while Robin snickered which caused the speedster to elbow him on the ribs.

"Fine, fine…" Robin said, "Why don't you go partner with Kaldur? You both know majority of Chaos' spells and moves…" Kid Flash huffed and went towards Aqualad, Chaos and Speedy. Once Kid Flash was out of earshot, Robin turned to Miss Martian, "Naruto didn't really volunteer, did he?"

Miss Martian blushed and shook her head bashfully, "No, but he did agree when I asked him." To that Robin chuckled.

**"Recognized, Black Canary 13. Recognized, Red Tornado 16."** The team turned towards the Zeta-tubes where Black Canary and Red Tornado appeared with a burst of light. The team gathered towards the center of the hall, facing their combat trainer and supervisor, with Kid Flash glaring daggers at Chaos all the while.

"We have reviewed our options, your training mission for level 2 will be option C." Black Canary said, "But before that, Chaos, we have some slight deviations planned on top of the original situation. Come with me."

Chaos nodded, taking off his mask and putting it in his storage dimension, together with his costume, leaving him in a white shirt with a golden ankh on it, tight black jeans and blue sneakers. As Naruto, he seemed as threatening as a regular fourteen year old, his form not quite as lean as Robin's or Kid Flash's, nor as buff as Aqualad's or Superboy's. His form was a cross between the two and while he was inches taller than Robin, he was not quite as imposing as he'd likened his father or grandfather to be.

He followed Black Canary towards the holographic control panel, leaving the others to themselves, excitedly discussing the oncoming training session. The day after their last session in Naruto's Reality Palace, they each had an individual talk with Batman about their shortcomings, faults, decisions, and successes. He had heavily reprimanded Aqualad for using most of his energy to the point of exhaustion just to stop a tsunami; Aqualad should have used only half of his energy and let Miss Martian handle the rest of the weakened wave when it reached the shore. He had told them that at all times, they should never let themselves be exhausted no matter if the obvious threat had been dealt with, taking into consideration the 'what if' scenario that the obvious threat was only the beginning and that there would be more hidden.

"The rest of the team, follow me." Red Tornado said, moving towards the elevator. Aqualad, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Robin, Speedy and Superboy followed shortly after him. When the team, sans Chaos, caught up with Red Tornado on the elevator going downwards, they heard the android speak again, "After the test run with your team, you better come up with a name for it, by the way… After your first training mission in Chaos' Reality Mansion, the Batman decided to make use of a more permanent time schedule and location for it."

The elevator stopped and opened to reveal the gymnasium, then Red Tornado stepped into the room then turned left with the rest of the team following shortly. The team were led to a spacious room with lots of equipment by the sides. Red Tornado turned to them and continued his explanation, "This room, formerly a workshop for the League, will serve as your mission training room, until we manage to implement a technology similar to the Danger Room's hard light from Chaos' home world. We are, as of yet, still making backup procedures to make sure the technology doesn't create sentience out of the technology here as had the Danger Room from Chaos' home world did. It would be very much more effective as a mission training exercise if all members of the team will be able to participate but Chaos won't if we continue the current method you're using."

He motioned for the large circular equipment lined with seals by the bottom and covered by a rather thick glass dome, "Just as your first time, Chaos' mind will be connected to yours and he will be monitored at all times through this. The device we call ORDER or Overhead Receiver for Distress and Exhaustion Readings, as he will be unable to function while under such situations. We, at all times, would very much like to avoid such to never repeat whatever happened to someone from his home world who's had similar abilities."

He turned and moved for one of the smaller devices beside the walls. He typed some things on a console beside it, then the glass protector swung upwards and turned back to the team. "The rest of the team will be in one of these capsules during the exercise, and will also be monitored, just as Chaos will be. If we deem it necessary, we will pull you out of the training. We've already gone through all of this with Chaos, and while you're waiting, you may examine the files Chaos and Batman had planned for future exercises. Every Sunday, at Nine O'clock, be here in this room for exercises, that will be all."

Red Tornado left the room, while the teenagers did as suggested. They read the files Chaos and Batman had written for their exercises. First ten exercises focusing on disaster prevention and civilian rescue during natural calamities. Levels 11 onward until 30 would be fighting the likes of the League of Shadows, the Hand, some renegades with access to superhuman abilities, some demons, Sentinels, and as Kid Flash wished, a group of androids with the ability to mimic superhuman abilities.

Levels 31 until 70 would be fighting organized superhuman organizations, the likes of the Justice League, the Avengers, the X-men, Injustice League, Sinister Six, Fantastic Four, Hellfire Club, Brotherhood. While the earlier levels would be fighting, or more like surviving, some of the stronger members of the teams, as the levels get higher, their challenges gets harder and they'd be fighting duos, then trios, then quartets, until they reach the ten levels above 60 that would have them fighting the entire organizations.

Levels 71 until 110 would be mostly survival training; trying to survive against an onslaught of either an infinite number of enemies or fighting against an almost undefeatable enemy, that would require them to find some weapon to neutralize the threat or merely outlast the enemy while waiting for reinforcements. Any level above that are, as of yet, undecided.

"Okay, I know I said this before, but I just have to say it again. This is crazy!" Kid Flash shouted, "Just what kind of nightmare did Chaos live in that these are possible training exercises?!"

"Look on the bright side, you got your wish: We'd get to fight an android able to mimic superhuman abilities." Superboy said, rather sarcastically.

Kid Flash groaned and glared at the Kryptonian clone, "Yes, and you got yours, we'd be trying to stop a level 3 volcano eruption."

* * *

**End Chapter**


	3. Team

Dialogue types:

_"Telepathic Communication"_

**_"Radio Communication/Nonhuman telepathic communication"_**

**"Nonhuman Speaking"**

"Regular Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Young Justice, those titles, together with characters present in the stories, are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and DC comics, respectively.

* * *

**-0106 EDT, 4 August 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"The android is in pieces again, safely being analyzed at two separate STAR Labs, but Ivo escaped." Aqualad reported, "Since he originated the tech, he's arguably more dangerous than the android."

"Capturing the professor will be a League priority." Black Canary stated.

"We understand that your team has encountered complications during the mission." Martian Manhunter commented.

"Complications come with the job. Your ability to handle them has impressed the League." Batman added.

"The whole League?" Superboy asked. Superboy's and Superman's almost nonexistent relationship has been a frequent subject amongst the team. They knew that Superman has yet to acknowledge Superboy for who or who he is, and that has been something that worried the rest of his teammates. Now that there is hope presented before him, Superboy would gladly and immediately take the chance to verify the truth that hope offered.

"Given time, yes." Batman answered, "Kryptonians as you know have very hard heads." Superboy gave a small smile at that and said nothing more. Batman continued, "Of course, there is no shame in asking for help. That's why the League exists, because there's some problems that even we can't handle individually."

Chaos scoffed at that, "If we did, that would have lead to an even more disastrous scenario. If even I, alone, had gone and helped them, who knows what could have happened. Just remember yesterday when you'd taken hours to take it apart just because more and more members of the League came and joined the fight?"

"It's just luck that no magic users were actually around, isn't it?" Robin asked.

"It is as of yet unknown if the android would be capable of storing mystical energies and channel them in some sort of spell, as you've said, there were no magic users who'd been around. We haven't tested the possibility, and we are not in hurry to confirm that." Batman said, wryly.

"Another unknown has made itself visible on our sights." Speedy said, taking an arrow from his pack, "The style of this arrow head is neither mine, nor yours, Green Arrow. We haven't sighted any other intruder during the mission, this is our only evidence that we apparently did."

"I've already tried tracing the energy signature left on it but I was unable to ascertain the location of the owner. Probably because the signature was already too weak when I arrived, either that the owner has very little life force in him or that he had fired that a long time before I tried. I've only had a general direction which is west." Chaos said.

Green Arrow, from beside Red Tornado, took the arrow and examined it closely. He handed it to Batman shortly after and addressed the team, "Well, just be thankful that whoever owns this didn't want any harm coming for you."

"You have encountered the owner?" Robin asked.

"Yes." Green Arrow said, with a bit of hesitation, then continued, "We are uncertain of this character's intentions, affiliations or motivations but I have faced him… or her."

"Well, whatever. I don't want to have to fight another guy like that." Kid Flash said, then remembered something from the last two weeks, and groaned loudly, "Oh right, we'll actually have to."

"Hmm-hmm, and you guys will be fighting them in groups." Chaos said in a sing-song voice.

"Don't be so sure that you won't be joining, Chaos." Batman said flatly, "We might just have finished the configurations by then."

Chaos stared at the dark knight horrifically behind his mask. "N-no way!"

Robin and Kid Flash chuckled, "Don't worry, we won't use you as a human shield. Just a battering ram, maybe." Speedy said with a straight face, at which Chaos punched him in the arm, causing Aqualad, Kid Flash, Robin, Speedy to laugh loudly while Miss Martian giggled, Superboy turned away, though they could hear snickers coming from his direction and Chaos sulked behind his mask.

* * *

**-0416 EDT, 5 August 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

"Mom! Dad! Brother!" Naruto screamed as he woke with a start. Currently sitting in a mess with sweat rolling off his entire body, Naruto stared at the white sheets crumpled and curled covering him. He'd heard those voices again, followed by visions of his mother, father and big brother. Ever since he'd joined the team they now named 'Young Justice', he'd been having those same dreams, now being his fourth recurring dream. He'd asked Kent about these visions but was unable to arrive at an answer, even with the use Nabu's orb which could be used to look into the past, present and future. The voices were definitely human, nothing like those of the demons whose world he group up in. He can't remember whose voices they belonged to, he was sure he haven't heard them before.

They were always about the same thing, they were convincing him to stay, like he actually had a way to go back to his home world, with the promise that his family would be with him in time. He didn't know how or why he did, but he knew he shouldn't trust those voices. There was something that was driving them into making him want to stay, and he didn't want the possibilities he thought of, if they actually had the power to bring his family with him or bring him back, while the Sorcerer Supreme couldn't.

They always said the same thing, 'To come back to your home, or to stay here indefinitely, it's your choice. Either way, you're going to get your family back. Either way, you're going to become one of the worlds' greatest superheroes. You have an easier life here than your old one, but then again, you're someone who's always up for a challenge. You don't need to answer now, but you will; we'll be waiting.' Always, there were twelve distinct voices, four females and eight males, but he couldn't put a face that he could connect them to.

He left his bed and went for a shower. Over the years that he'd been here, he couldn't find a single parallelism between the physical aspects. On the general and magical sense, both dwelling places of the Sorcerer Supremes were the nexus for a large amount of magic across the multiverse, in each reality (he'd taken into his mind that both realities have their own multiverses, and both cannot have their realities in a single omniverse, otherwise they'd already found a way to cross each other's worlds).

Physical and architectural differences were enormous. First of all, the Sanctum Sanctorum is styled as a mansion, while the Tower of Fate is, well, a tower. Inside, the Sanctum Sanctorum could almost be described as cramped if one were to compare it to the Tower of Fate. Also the Sanctum is filled with lots antiques, magical artifacts from across the multiverse, while the only magical artifacts in the Tower are the Helmet of Fate, the Orb of Nabu, the Cloak of Destiny and the Amulet of Anubis.

He stopped his repeated musings as he stepped out of the shower and put on his favorite orange tracksuit and took himself out of the tower for an early run. He'd taken to exercise his body, not just his magic and his mind, daily as he'd often been reminded by his parents and big brother, even if his body actually stayed the same no matter what happens. He would do it when he'd exhausted his mind and magic, or just to mess with other people who would look at him incredulously when he'd run far faster than a regular teenage boy and still continue more than an adult who'd been training in cardio exercises daily.

"Another vision?" Kent asked as Naruto made his way towards the living room of the Tower. Currently lounging on a comfortable cushioned chair and sipping tea by the flames in the fireplace, Kent calmly awaited Naruto's answer, whilst the teen drank greedily from his water jug.

"No, it's those voices." Naruto said, going for the couch across the chair Kent was in.

Kent nodded silently, then after some contemplation, he said, "I tried to use the Amulet to sense any such disturbance going through the barriers of this reality as what had happened when those five summoned you from the nether, but I found no such occurrences."

"Then that must mean whoever's trying contact with me is within this dimension." Naruto said with a nod, "But what would they want? They must have much power, more than you and I but why would they try to contact me, specifically?"

"You already recognize most Lords of Chaos and you've been acquainted with all Lords of Order, but as you've said, you cannot connect their voices with those you've met, and the Lords of Magic are the only ones I think capable of such a feat. Even the Guardians of the Universe would never attempt to interfere with the lives of humans, much less open a rift to or from the nether." Kent mused.

"Eh, whatever." Naruto shrugged, "If they ever become a threat, I'd just have to consult with you. Hopefully, it won't happen before that vision comes to pass, if it ever will."

Naruto then vanished from thin air, with a subtle flash of gold where he was lounging on the couch. Kent just shook his head fondly with a small smile on his face then turned to the portrait of his beloved Inza above the fireplace.

* * *

**-1805 EDT, 7 August 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"Recognized, Green Arrow 08. Recognized, Red Arrow B-05. Recognized, Artemis B-07." said the metallic voice of the Cave's interface. The Zeta-tube flashed then revealed the three forms of said people. Green Arrow, in his usual dark green hoodie with a light green vest over it, black pants, green boots, green gloves, and a green belt with a golden 'G' buckle.

Beside Green Arrow is Red Arrow, formerly Speedy. He'd said that his old codename was misleading, as many people thought he was someone with super speed rather than someone who has skills in archery, and only now did they finalize the change as he was going to be more a part of a team, Young Justice, than Green Arrow's apprentice. As Red Arrow, he'd also changed his costume, saying that he looked too much like a cross between Peter Pan and Robin Hood, Green Arrow's inspiration for his own. He changed his overall theme from red to black but still had red accents here and there; he also lost his yellow cap, yellow gloves, and the yellow sash that had his quiver attached to it. He now wore a black sleeveless suit with an accent of red on his chest and collar, his quiver attached to two gray straps he wore like a back pack, and his black gloves fingerless.

On the other side of Green Arrow is Artemis. Almost completely unknown to the team, except that apparently, it was her who had helped Kid Flash escape from the Amazo's death grip when it caught him. Artemis's uniform was a midriff-baring costume that highlighted her build. It was colored in various shades of green and consisted of a mask extending from the hairline to the cheekbones, a sleeveless top with a stylized arrow tip on the front, fingerless gloves, pants with black knee pads, and black combat boots. She had a black utility belt and pouch strapped on her left leg that were likely filled with assorted tools.

Just the other day, Green Arrow had been approached by Artemis, claiming to want to be his apprentice, much like how Speedy, now Red Arrow, had done. While the rest of the team were still wary of her, not knowing her intentions and motivations, she'd been accepted into Young Justice. Nonetheless, the Kid Flash was grateful at her for saving him, as was the rest of the team.

The archer trio made their way towards the console where Aqualad, Batman, Chaos, Miss Martian, Red Tornado, Robin, and Superboy were situated around the holographic screen of the cave's system. "You'd received my alert?" Green Arrow asked, addressing Batman who nodded curtly, "Good. Does the rest of the team know the situation?"

"Not yet, we are still awaiting the arrival of one more, who, according to my trackers, would be here in a flash." Batman said flatly. The teens snickered lightly at that.

"Recognized, Kid Flash B-03." The Zeta-tube's flash of light died down and revealed Wally dressed in nothing but board shorts, carrying all sorts of beach equipment.

"The Wal-man is here!" Wally said, boisterously, "Now, let's get this party star-" he stumbled on his way forward, cutting whatever he was saying as he fell down. While the rest of the people present openly stared at his fallen form, he finished lamely, "-ted?"

"Isn't this a surprise!" Artemis started, "The Wal-man graces us his presence! Remind me again, how did you become a part of this elite team?"

Wally scowled at her, then turned towards the rest of the team, who, he realized, were fully dressed in their respective costumes. "Mission?" he asked, the team nodded their heads and he groaned, "Awww, man!"

"Now that we are all here, would you like to elaborate more on the situation?" Batman asked, turning to Green Arrow, as if Wally hadn't just made a show.

"Last night, we'd rescued a nanorobotics expert that goes by the name Doctor Serling Roquette. We found her held hostage by the League of Shadows in the Infinity Island, being forced to create what she called the FOG, a weapon composed of millions upon millions of microscopic robots." Green Arrow said, then changed the data on screen to a four-columned window, one showing a repetitive image of a robotic bug. He continued, "Nanotech infiltrators, capable of disintegrating anything in their path. Concrete, steel, flesh, bone. Its true purpose, however, isn't destruction, it's theft. The infiltrators can even store raw data from any computer system and deliver the stolen Intel to the Shadows."

"They'd then be able to gain access to weapons, strategic defense systems, cutting-edge science and tech, you name it." Red Arrow added, "It'd be perfect for extortion, manipulation, power-broking, and more."

"Roquette's working on a virus to render the FOG inert. We had chosen to take her off the grid, stashed at the local high school's computer lab." Artemis said, adding in her two cents.

"While the League would be able to take care of this problem, we'd made the decision that as part of your training in stealth, civilian protection, and teamwork, we'd delegate this mission to your team. Remember your own strengths and weaknesses, delegate tasks and never underestimate the enemy." Batman said.

"Roger." the Young Justice team said in unison.

**-2153 EDT, 8 August 2010; Happy Harbor National High School, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"How did you guys know about her kidnapping?" Kid Flash asked the two archers before him. He now wore his suit in stealth mode and is currently lounging on a desk some ways away from the working doctor.

"Our informant doesn't wish his identity revealed, yet." Red Arrow answered, "He said that he and his associates will be making themselves known, soon. When? We don't know. We only know that, apparently, their benefactor wishes to protect… us, until they send their agents."

"Do you want for a telepathic link for the team? The Shadows might not be able to detect our presence here but they might intercept our communication signals if we talk through the intercom." Chaos said.

"Might as well, it would be better for our coordination and less the time lag, just the discomfort of someone else's thoughts in your head." Robin answered.

"I just didn't include the doctor, she might need most of her concentration on her work." Chaos said mentally, "Can everybody here me?"

"Yes." The most of the team answered while Superboy and Artemis merely grunted.

"This is weird…" Artemis commented.

"I'll go ahead and join Superboy and Miss Martian patrol the perimeter, there's eight of us in the team, after all. Anyone else wanna join? I doubt protecting the doctor would require more than two, but just in case, let's split the team in two." Chaos said, going out the sliding door and made his way towards the outside.

"I'll join, I'm much more use in an open space." Red Arrow said, following Chaos' lead.

"Me too, besides, I can't stand Flashboy glaring at the back of my head." Artemis said, following Red Arrow shortly after.

"It's Kid Flash!"

Once the three patrol additions made for the outside, Chaos immediately took to the highest part of the school and extended his mental and physical senses, while sitting cross-legged and floating mid-air. Red Arrow made for the western border, while Artemis made for the east, covering all four borders with Superboy on the south and Miss Martian on the north.

"Mmmm… That boy…" The team heard Artemis in their head, very seductively.

"Stop playing games, we're on a mission." Red Arrow reprimanded her.

"Yes, yes. You're such a killjoy."

"Miss Martian, Doctor Roquette has tracked the location of the FOG, reconfigure the bioship so Superboy and I can pursue." Robin said. Even before Miss Martian replied, Robin and Superboy were already on their way for the ship.

As soon as the ship left, however, they heard Chaos, "We've got intruders, fast and nimble. Definitely the Shadows, two on the south, three north and two more on the east."

No sooner had they heard that the figures leapt from the trees, bushes and posts they were hiding from. While Chaos moved to intercept the two from the south as Superboy's leave made the southern border vulnerable, Artemis engaged two nondescript looking Shadows, both wearing the same black suit, and Red Arrow moved to assist Miss Martian in taking down the threats on her side.

Red Arrow just shot his third when he saw, from the corner of his eye, something move from the fence he'd been guarding. He shot another arrow to take down the third Shadow that managed to blindside Miss Martian before going to pursue whatever he saw. When it comes to the Shadows, it's always prudent that they took the most caution.

"Threats neutralized on the south." Chaos said mentally, "Anyone else require aid?"

"Almost done…" Artemis said, then, "There. My side's done, Shadows unconscious and restrained."

"Me too." Miss Martian said.

"New threat, recognized. Moving to pursue." Kid Flash said.

"Inside? How? Red Arrow?" Chaos asked. He got no response, however, and immediately made use of his teleportation mark on Red Arrow, leaving his paralyzed opponents near Artemis, only to find the red and black archer unconscious, pinned on a wall with shuriken stars littering outlining his form. While taking the shuriken down from the walls, he asked, "Kid Flash, status?"

"M'gann, Artemis, Chaos, we're under attack in the computer lab, Kid has yet to return." Aqualad said after a few seconds.

"He's currently lying unconsciously on the gym pool." Miss Martian said, "Artemis had gone to assist in the lab."

"This keeps getting interesting," said the black haired woman dressed in a dark green kimono, tied on her waist, barely reaching her thighs, her black boots coming up beyond her knees and her white mask covering her face. As Chaos appeared in the room with a yellow flash, Red Arrow on his side and his bow trained on the Shadow, Kid Flash and Miss Martian entered to intercept the arrow Artemis shot that the Shadow deflected. Red Arrow let loose of the arrow he'd cocked on the woman's thigh to immobilize her only for it to be sliced in half. She turned to observe the group that had gathered, "Perhaps a little too interesting."

Kid Flash attempted to capture the woman but passed through nothing but smoke and caught Artemis in an embrace instead. "Gone!"

"She's getting away! You're letting her get away!" Doctor Roquette shrieked, panicked.

"Perhaps not." Chaos said, "I may not have been able to mark her but I can still sense her around, pursue target?" Chaos asked, looking around the group. They still had no clear decision on who should be taking the leadership.

"Go ahead," Red Arrow said, "But take someone with you. We should probably move the doctor before more Shadows arrive."

"I'll go then." Kid Flash volunteered. Chaos nodded and ran out the door, followed closely by Kid Flash. They ran out of the building, out of the school grounds, and into the forest surrounding it.

"Robin to the team. We've tracked the Shadow's next target, the STAR Labs over at Philadelphia… No! We're too late! It's destroyed, completely destroyed! STAR Labs is cutting-edge science, and now their secrets are in the hands of the enemy! What's the next move?!"

"Aqualad to Robin and Superboy, we're currently moving the doctor, we'll send for another tracking signal for you to follow."

Chaos and Kid Flash were already deep into the forest, getting slight static in their intercom. A few more feet and the static was already full-blown, they took their earpieces off while Kid Flash switched to infrared to see better in the darkness. He and Chaos stopped and made for the branches, looking down at several Shadows standing guard by a clearing, surrounding a rather gaudy machine. "I don't know what that's for, but it looks like they were here for an ambush." Kid Flash whispered.

"And you're right." They looked to the left and saw the woman they were chasing moments ago crouching on a nearby branch. She was also watching the figures below before turning to the speechless teenagers and giggled, "Chaos, you didn't really think your summoners you would just let you go, would you?"

That got them out of their stupor as Chaos put his hands on Kid Flash's shoulder in an attempt to port out of the forest, only to find that he can't, and instead hurled the speedster towards a nearby branch, after shouting, "Get out!"

"Chaos, wha-?" Kid Flash managed to say before he was cut off as he was assaulted by three Shadows on separate branches. On the forest floor, Chaos was convulsing heavily then carried off by two Shadows with the kimono clad Shadow watching the events pass by. Kid Flash fell on the floor after being kicked on the back by one of the shadows. The three who were carrying on their assault on the speedster was joined by two more, and Kid Flash was helpless to do anything as the forest floor prevented any super speed runs so he only resolved to using high-speed punches, overhead jumps, feints and such.

Minutes passed by then, one by one, the five Shadows left the fight with Kid Flash, with the final one knocking him out, his fatigue leaving him vulnerable to blind side attacks.

* * *

**-0052 EDT, 9 August 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"What happened." Batman hissed, looking at the sullen faces of the Young Justice members.

"I already told you, we were pursuing one of the attacking Shadows and we were ambushed in the forest, there was probably more than fifty waiting for us in the forest, and the signal was very weak, all we could hear was static, and since Chaos was the one who'd had the mental connection, I couldn't have made contact with the others to ask for help." Kid Flash said, his head hung low.

Batman sighed heavily at that, then turned towards the screen where the face of Kent Nelson was shown, a frown deeply seated on his lips. "Can you ascertain his location or the identities of the Shadows' employers for the kidnapping."

Kent shook his head slowly, "His signature seems to have vanished from this plane, most likely being hidden by powerful magic. As for the summoners, there are many Lords of Chaos who'd shown interest in his potential, and as such, it is only natural they make another attempt such as this. I'm afraid this isn't the first he'd had in this world."

"I'm sorry, we should've seen it very obviously. Of us, he's the only one trained enough to sense energy signatures, more of us should've followed them for the chase." Miss Martian said, teary eyed.

Batman shook his head, "You didn't know of the ambush and did only the task you were set on."

"But now, we're going to have bigger problems than just information leaks and stolen technology. With Chaos on their side, who knows what could happen?" Kent said.

"That's why I'm here."

The gathered superheroes turned towards a figure clad in a black suit, a white collared shirt underneath with a black tie on it, completing it with black leather shoes. His face was very pale and empty of expression, his onyx black eyes showing nothing to the experienced detectives and his black hair trimmed to be nondescript. He seemed to have come from the elevator

"Who are you?" Batman asked in a serious and deadly voice.

"You can call me Dragon, but who I am is unimportant. My colleagues and I only wishes for the safety of this team of youngsters, especially the one you call Chaos." The man said in a completely business-like tone.

"You and your colleagues?" Kent asked with a hint of interest.

"Yes, we've had several times contacted him through his dreams, and I've come to fulfill a promise made." Dragon said.

"They're there?" Kent asked, rather incredulously.

"Yes." Dragon said plainly, then he turned away from the group, "I've delivered what needed delivering, said what needed mention. I shall leave you to your tasks."

The man, as he passed in to the shadow of the cave, blended into the darkness until they could no longer hear the loud noise made by his heeled shoes.

The rest - Aqualad, Artemis, Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Red Arrow, Red Tornado, Robin, and Superboy - turned towards the onscreen face of Kent Nelson who'd gone pensive. They awaited any clarification on the earlier conversation for minutes but got nothing as the current host of Doctor Fate continued to stare. When, finally, the dark knight got tired of waiting, he cleared his throat and said, "We need answers."

Kent raised an eyebrow then realization came over him and answered, "Oh, right! Naruto, ever since the team was made, was contacted four times, until the fifth of this month. He'd said that twelve people had tried contacting him through his dreams, asking whether he'd like to stay or return to his home world and that he'd get his family either way. We had no knowledge of their intentions and until today, we didn't know when they'd show up."

"His family?" Miss Martian asked, looking around the cave.

"Better look around. If I'm right, his family could be very big help in this current predicament." Kent said with a glint in his eyes, "Just now, I'd felt a very large energy signature in the cave, very much like Naruto's or even stronger. Ta-ta for now, there're some things I would have to do."

They did look around with Miss Martian finding a red haired woman calmly sleeping on a bed on the girls' living quarters and Superboy finding two blonde men sleeping separately on the boys' living quarters. They woke their respective target, who were a bit disgruntled at being woken up by strangers and led them to the meeting room, the rest of the not-so-secret Secret Sanctuary's occupants waiting there. They were still a bit sleepy, waving aside those who attempted to strike up a conversation.

They'd immediately straightened up with the mention of their lost family member, "We need your help to find Naruto, we'd been informed that you would have your methods." Batman said.

"Yes." The trio said in unison, then the older man spoke, "Arashi, care to do the honors?"

The younger blonde said nothing as he sat down on the ground, cross-legged, while the man and woman eyed their entourage. The sitting blonde's body flared up after a few seconds with some kind of wispy yellowish energy lined with some seals going up and around his body and stayed like that for a few minutes. The glowing young man stood and opened his blue eyes, moved towards the his other companions and whispered something.

The blonde man and scarlet haired woman nodded their head before the scarlet haired woman spoke, "I take it you already know we're from a different reality?"

Those before them nodded their heads while Artemis looked at her companions confused, then the man spoke again, "Would you care to show us a map or a model of this world's geography?"

"According to Naruto, the geographic differences between our worlds isn't much, so it would be quite fine." Black Canary said, going towards the console. The man nodded his head and followed her, taking out a device from his pocket, some sort of cross between a scepter and wand.

The scarlet haired woman addressed the rest, "I guess introductions are in order. My name is Kushina," she said, then gestured at the blonde man by the console who just put his special device on it, "That's Minato, and this is Arashi." She finished, gesturing at the young man by her side whose form had returned back to normal.

"Naruto's given us some information on his family so we'd already made the connection, but nonetheless, you still don't know us. We are members of the Justice League, Naruto says its equivalent would be the Avengers from your world; codenames: Batman, that's me, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Red Tornado. Naruto has become a part of a younger team, Young Justice, with the codename Chaos. This are his teammates - Aqualad, Artemis, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Red Arrow, Robin and Superboy."

"If none of you are busy, we could go and make a speedy rescue right now." Minato said, examining the orb at the top of his device, with a rune circle around it, "According to Arashi, there are several energy signature with the same one as Naruto, and the mark we'd put on him had already vanished."

He put the device on the table and the sphere expanded, revealing a detailed copy of the world map with seventeen red target signs scattered around it.

"While he may be unconscious, catatonic, or in a coma, the seeker sphere should protect him from any danger." Arashi spoke.

"The League has already been put on high alert. While all of us want Naruto safe and found, there are still other threats that might make themselves known. I'm sure the Lords of Order would all gladly come to help in this endeavor, the risk is just too much for us to remain passive on this while he is not found." Batman said.

"Well then, I'll get my suit ready." Minato said, vanishing with a flash of yellow.

* * *

**End Chapter**


	4. Choices

**A/N: I would like to apologize for this chapter, it's rather rushed, and I would've liked to add more but can't think of what more to write. Also, am looking for a Beta Reader, thanks for reading this note, and please R&R.**

Dialogue types:

_"Telepathic Communication"_

**_"Radio Communication/Nonhuman telepathic communication"_**

**"Nonhuman Speaking"**

"Regular Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Young Justice, those titles, together with characters present in the stories, are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and DC comics, respectively.

* * *

**-1342 EDT, 19 August 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

Ten days had passed and gone, the Justice League, the Young Justice, even the Lords of Order, and most of all, Chaos' family, still had not been able to find the location Chaos is in. In the last ten days, they'd tried and tried to find him only to be ambushed by various enemies of the League, and at most times, Chaos' energy signature would go off the grid in one location then pop up nearly halfway around the globe, it was maddening. They're exhausted, not just because of the constant battles they'd participated in, but also because of the chaotic magic that was permeating throughout the globe.

Natural disasters would happen every hour and then unexplained phenomena regarding the lives of everyone living in the planet would occur every now and then, such as: spontaneous combustion, gravity nullification, gadgets short-circuiting, supers would lose their special abilities for hours to days, astral projections of random people's memories, and much more. Pandemonium, that's what they called it, the Lords of Order's worst nightmare, and the Lords of Chaos are nowhere to be found. On the fifth day, most countries had already declared a National State of Calamity, and more were declaring theirs.

The chaos, as the Lords of Order - Nabu and Shazam - had said, is threatening to spill out into the rest of the universe, as the barrier Doctor Fate had cast was weakening and the chaotic magic becomes more concentrated and more wild. If said magic does spill out into the universe, there is a big possibility that it would also create tears in the fabric of reality and cause many similar strange phenomena to occur across all of the multiverse, and if that happens… the Guardians of Reality will be forced to destroy this universe. Arashi, who has taken on the codename of Sage, had calculated the magic spilling out of the planet in five days, and that is why they are in a state of panic.

Sage had greatly helped in containing the magic, reinforcing the barrier with his seals, and connecting his own magic to the chaos in an attempt to calm it, to no avail. While he said that he had yet to take out the 'big guns', he'd also said that doing so must only be their last resort. They still had to hope that they'd find Chaos and eventually fix this situation. For the past ten days, Arashi and Minato took only their 'necessary' four hours sleep and took turns in giving coordinates to the rest of the searchers and took almost half of the job by themselves, aided by Sage's special ability to be in several places at once and his almost inexhaustible store for energy. Kushina, who'd taken to using the codename Psychic Rose, had gone off with the Justice League in neutralizing threats that had escalated more than the exhausted Young Justice could handle.

Today, however, was a different case as several of the energy signatures they'd detected to Chaos' was closing in on two of the Lords of Order's dwelling places: the Rock of Eternity and the Tower of Fate. Swirling thunderclouds gathered over the Tower of Fate and earthquakes were felt in the vicinity. Sage and Golden Flash, the codename Minato had taken, after Sage created five clones of himself to aid Doctor Fate defend the Tower, took off towards the Rock of Eternity where the larger amount of magical energy was detected.

Up at the roof, Doctor Fate was chanting continuously with his hands raised, a golden barrier erected over the Tower as its structure continued to shake, several fights ongoing within, and above, several thunderclouds were shooting red lightning at the Tower, Klarion's dark magic signature present with each strike. Beyond the Tower, at the center of the swirling clouds was a large crystal surrounded by red and black circles of magic, reaching far into the clouds. It was the vessel for the spell Klarion cast over the atmosphere to create the magical storm.

He only had to hold for several more minutes before his reinforcements would arrive, but need not worry no more as three of Sage's clones came on the roof, their forms glowing bright yellow with outlines of orange and reddish orange. The three clones raised their hands and added barrier seals on top of Doctor Fate's. One of the three clones made his way towards the Lord of Order and asked, "Need help, Doc?"

Doctor Fate shook his head and said in multiple voices, "Go and secure the perimeter, I am just about finished with the spell, just gathering the needed power after the incantation."

The clone nodded his head, but remained on spot, "We've requested aid from the Tailed Beasts, they'll be in here any minute now." Sure enough, a gigantic greenish bug with three pairs of flitting insect wings and a long stinger at the end of its tail dripping a deep purple sticky liquid. One of the clones moved towards it and jumped on its head, going off from the roof of the Tower of Fate and flying around it instead. "I don't know if Naruto had told you guys about the Tailed Beasts, so I'm just going to say it, there are nine of them and not all are exactly friendly."

The other clone then jumped off the roof and dropped to atop the head of an orange furred fox that was beginning to gather a lot of energy on its mouth, not that the Doctor had seen, but sensed. From above the crystal, a large golden ankh shined and bathed light all over the place, dispersing the dark swirling clouds and weakening the wind that was ripping the trees off the ground, and finally, extended its tail end towards the crystal, only for it to be absorbed into the crystal that then glowed gold together with the twenty-seven concentric circles around it.

The clones and Doctor Fate were too shocked by it that they made no move, except for the Tailed Beasts who'd hightailed out of the clearing, and shielding themselves with their own unique methods. The clone on the Seven-Tailed Rhinoceros Beetle dispersed itself when it got out of its stupor, while the one on the Nine-Tailed Fox asked for the fox and the other tailed beasts through their mental connection to attack the crystal. The beasts began gathering energy on its mouth again whilst the clone on the rooftop made more layers of barrier seals and a final defense which is the black sphere extending itself to protect both himself and the frozen and tired Doctor Fate.

The Tailed Beasts shot the concentrated black energy spheres off at the lone crystal on the sky, but not before it fired off a golden beam down at the Tower. The golden beam managed to penetrate nine of eleven barrier seals, stopping at the cracking golden barrier dome Doctor Fate had cast. The black energy spheres exploded on the sky, illuminating the surrounding once more, fully dispersing all the dark clouds gathered.

* * *

**-1729 EDT, 19 August 2010; The Watchtower, Earth's Orbit-**

Almost two hours had passed since Golden Flash had taken Chaos out of the strange machine that took control of his magic. It was a brilliantly destructive piece of technology that he took apart piece by piece turning them to scrap or rubble. He'd managed to disable it with his technokinetic abilities while Sage tampered down the chaotic magic emanating from it. From the attack on the Rock of Eternity, the three magic users made a stand to combat the effects of the cosmic energy imbued magic continually corrupted to create chaos.

Lying on two separate beds in the infirmary of the advanced medical facilities of the Watchtower are the prone bodies of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze and Kent Nelson, both in a catatonic state from exhaustion. While Naruto's already out of danger from going into coma as his magic is currently on very low levels after days of, presumably, no sleep nor food, strapped on a magic siphoning machine, Kent is on the verge of dying as a result of overextension and old age. Arashi had stabilized their conditions, connecting their life force to his and the cosmic energy of the universe. Arashi had said that Kent's soul is slipping out of his body and threatening to pass on to the afterlife, saying he's ready to meet Inza.

Over the past ten days, the three relations of Naruto proved themselves a great help to the world, their work recognized by the League and even by Lanterns who'd answered the distress call the two Green Lanterns of Earth sent out. They'd been offered positions in the Justice League (in order for the League to keep a close eye on them, according to Batman) and they gladly accepted. With Naruto back in their arms, they'd do all they can to keep him safe, a task that would be easier for them in the League or Arashi in the Young Justice.

For the past ten days of endlessly trying to save the world, all of the superheroes were exhausted, and beyond that, they were terrified and horrified of the infinite number of possibilities that could have caused their deaths, but thankfully none of their numbers had perished. All over the globe, the amount of dead people were still being accounted for, now at more than 2.7 million, with more than 6 trillion worth of properties damaged.

The Young Justice team were beyond grateful that their first mission training exercises were on the grounds of calamity containment, otherwise they would have more than panicked during the situation. They had another addition to their numbers: Zatanna Zatara. After more than ten instances that she'd been with the team while her dad had been with the League, she had become great friends with them. She'd managed to persuade her father to let her join while she continued her training, under the tutelage of Sage with the use of seals which intrigued Zatara.

Right now, they were discussing on what to do with their situation, the people want blood, and they want to know who is responsible for the devastation that swept through the globe. They'd been unable to do so before as communication channels were shut down, and they just didn't want to, until the problem was taken care of. They had been unable to apprehend the responsible assailants for the catastrophe, and telling people the villains who were behind such events would cause the people to distrust the Justice League.

"Well, we can't just hand Chaos over to them, that's would be even more detrimental to our cause." Wonder Woman said.

"What do you suggest, then?" Batman asked.

"He had enough power to cause such events without knowing it… do you think he can undo it all?" Aquaman asked.

"Orin, he is just a child. Even if he did have the power, as Sage had said, he doesn't have the control. Even trying it could cause an imbalance in the magic of the universe." The Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, reprimanded the Atlantean king.

"I know, but even my people had been affected by it. Most of our structures had taken centuries to build and to have almost half of them be destroyed at naught but a whim of a child is an insult to our people."

"Sage, together with his parents and Shazam, are doing what they can to fix the damage done by Chaos' magic, but it's taking too long, and the longer we wait, the more the people of Earth will suffer." Superman said.

"I suggest we hold the press as much as we can until Chaos' and, hopefully, Kent's conditions get better. The Doctor's help would really be a great one for this, the rips in the fabrics of reality are still to be fixed and we are still awaiting the decisions of the more divine or extraterrestrial entities whether or not to pledge aid." Hawkwoman added.

"I do not agree with it, but maybe it is for the best. There are some things that would cause more trouble if we make the true details of the events known to the press." Batman decided.

The others merely nodded their heads and turned their communication devices off, leaving the dark knight to contemplate the events of the past ten days in the communications room of the Watchtower.

* * *

**-0824 EDT, 23 August 2010; Hall of Justice, Washington D.C.-**

Four days passed and Chaos' health had returned back with a healthy glow, while Kent's continued to deteriorate. Kent had woken at least two or three times in the three days after the final stand, asking Chaos to take the Helmet of Fate, and allow Nabu control to his reality manipulation abilities. It was something Psychic Rose and Golden Flash disagreed fully as they might lose their son to becoming the host to the Sorcerer Supreme, but something that Sage hesitantly agreed on. Without proper training, Chaos is yet to take full control of his terrifying ability, but with Doctor Fate, they might just be able to undo the damage done upon the planet.

The members of the League and split on this suggestion, weary of the intentions of Doctor Fate and the abilities Chaos presented. There were some who were eager that the teen took it on and undo the damage done, or take it even further as to make universal peace, a feat that his parents said was possible, not that he'd done it himself, but someone who had a similar ability from a different dimension and timeline. Some were still hesitant as they worried for Chaos' well-being, and most were indignant that they should be doing the repairing themselves, and not choosing the easy way out.

Ultimately, Chaos had agreed to it, wondering just what being Doctor Fate would be like, and just how far the Lord of Order would make use of his own abilities, as he, himself, had yet to make certain of the extents and limits of his abilities. His own world's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, had said that while Chaos has a large magical potential, his own reality manipulation abilities are actually cosmic based, not magic, unlike Scarlet Witch's and very much like his friend's, Franklin. Sage, who had trained in the use of the Sage Arts, had limited reality manipulation abilities, completely under his control, and had suggested that Chaos, too, train in the same arts to make a better control of his own and increase his magical abilities.

That is why they are currently in the Hall of Justice to show that Chaos would be the one to fix damages done, after which, the Justice League would reveal the truth of the disastrous events in the past days. Chaos looked at his brother who nodded his head encouragingly and put the golden Helmet of Fate over his head. What happened was something he'd not expected. He looked at the room he came to call the control room of his Reality Mansion, seals upon seals line on the walls - his archived knowledge of the magical arts, the sciences, and histories of the dimensions, for easier access and orderly cataloguing. On the screen where he would see what his physical eyes would, he saw what he usually would have, instead of what he expected.

The seals he would put his hands on to control his body's actions glowed gold instead of the usual blue, and behind him was the form of Doctor Fate, complete with the Cloak of Destiny, the Amulet of Anubis, and the Orb of Nabu held before him with his two hands. "So, the One had finally put the helmet on." Doctor Fate said, and instead of the usual multiple voices speaking in unison, only one came out of the caped entity, "The Fate of the world had long since been mine to protect, however, ever since you came to this world, Fate no longer stayed as it is."

"So?" Naruto asked, turning in his chair to face the Lord of Order.

"So, I should be thanking you for saving this universe it was Fated to end up as."

"What?"

"Your ability to manipulate reality has changed the designs Fate had for this world and, in doing so, saved this reality from the terrible events I would not care to elaborate on."

"Um… okay. I don't really understand what you're talking about, but can you help me in fixing the damage done to this reality? I know I do not have the control for it, but you must have… You're a Lord of Order, and all I can really do with my current level of control is chaos."

"You are right in that assumption, and as suggested by your other world's self, you must train to control that powerful ability, and have it fully melded with your own magic. But for now, I will take control. The Presence will not take kindly if I do take permanent control of your body."

"The Presence?" Naruto got no answer, however, as his chair moved out of the way and Doctor Fate hovered towards his control seal arrays and put his hands over it. The overhead screen showed nothing but gold for a few minutes and returned back to normal, then the Lord of Order took his gloved hands off the controls and turned to Naruto.

"It has been a pleasure to serve you, my prince."

After that, Naruto saw nothing for seconds but blinding gold. When he got his vision back, he saw his brother holding on to the Helmet of Fate, a big smile on his face.

* * *

**-0800 EDT, 29 August 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

After Chaos had been rescued, Golden Flash had worked tirelessly on Mount Justice and left Sage to care for Chaos as he implemented the Danger Room's hard light technology on the Secret Sanctuary together with Batman and the Lanterns. He said he'd rather work and make something productive than worry about something he cannot do anything about. He'd had the upper levels of the mountain turned into a spacious tiled room and the had the hangar relocated at the former trophy room and the trophy room was integrated with the lounge.

He'd also had the computers added capabilities to interact with more energies than just the regular sources for power, such as cosmic energy, psionic energy, mystical energy and more. It was much like the system he'd created for his suit and one Chaos had recreated, except that it would scan for global events rather than just the immediate environment. While the League agreed to have it run on Mount Justice as a test first, and only later implement it on the Watchtower, the Young Justice team had been ecstatic about it, as they need not worry anymore about the possibilities of mission objectives changing as their time with Chaos had.

Kent Nelson's health had also gotten better, and the Helmet of Fate stowed back in the Tower while Kent waited to pass on the responsibility of being Doctor Fate on a worthy and willing candidate. With the world back in the state it was before the chaos, the Young Justice team had been given leave until Chaos could make it back for another training session or until the Shi'ar hard light technology was implemented and ready for use. The League had commended the team for their work and advanced their training to Level 11.

**"Recognized, Chaos B-02. Recognized, Sage B-09."** Wearing their full costumes, Chaos and Sage made their way towards the holographic control interface where the rest of the team stood. Sage had already met the team, having assisted them on several missions and even led them on some during Chaos' time away from the team. He was currently wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, black jeans and open-toed sandals and an indigo bandana tied on his forehead with four white concentric circles in the middle. While many of them had found it strange at first, they got over the nondescript look of Sage's costume once he'd entered the two forms of Sage Mode he would often use.

One was that he would gather cosmic energy (after thorough examination from their previous dimension, the mana Sage Mode used was actually cosmic energy, and it was what allowed Sage to alter his immediate environments to his liking and enhance his physical and magical abilities) and his clothes and hair would turn black, his shirt would be emblazoned with a glowing purple crescent moon faced down, he often used this mode with his special eyes to see through the dark - it was perfect for stealth.

The other mode was that he would spread his magical energy into the environment and have it meld with the cosmic energy of the universe, his clothes would glow yellow with orange outlining his form. It was like he had become a fire elemental, with a black eight-elemental seal on his stomach that helps him maintain his constant release of energy, his shirt would extend down, to emulate the costume 'Neo' used in the movie 'Matrix', and on his back shown was three concentric circles around a fully black one, three comma-like figures on each circle and what looked like five eyes around the circle. It was what he used when he'd go for his more destructive abilities.

Chaos' usually black costume was a swirl of colors as he'd yet to recover all of his used up magical stores, a week or more, and he'd be back up to full tank. He wore his black scaly coat over his rainbow suit his hood up with his white porcelain mask on his face. He completed his costume with black leather gloves, black running shoes and his magical medallion fashioned after the Uzumaki Clan's crest hanging over his chest.

"Good to have you back on the team." Miss Martian said, hugging Chaos.

"Thanks." Chaos replied, then noticed the new team member, he stuck out his arm towards the black haired girl, "Oh hello, I'm Chaos, or Naruto, if you wish."

"Zatanna Zatara, my real name."

"Glad to meet you."

"How would you guys like to test out the new Danger Room, or whatever you like to call it?" Sage asked.

"We'd love to." Kid Flash said. He, along with Robin, had wanted to test out the new technology as soon as possible. With the hard light technology, there will be many new innovations that could be made not only for training but also for learning, entertainment, and more. They'd be able to make many dreams possible, it's so much like magic, combinations of many enchantments if the book and movie series, Harry Potter and his many curious misadventures, was the one they are going to make their comparisons to.

* * *

**-0011 EEST, 3 September 2010; Bialyan Desert-**

Danger. That was the first thing he thought of when he claimed his consciousness, and he's right, as there, coming for him, was Superboy with seemingly overwhelmingly wild and savage thoughts rather that could be attributed more as animalistic rather than human. Chaos rolled back to avoid the landing form of the Kryptonian clone. Superboy's landing blew up a dust cloud while Chaos drew up a telekinetic shield while preparing a spell to knock the clone out.

Before Chaos could cast the spell, Superboy charged at him, destroying the shield and began to engage him in a brawl, it allowed Chaos enough time to draw up seals and paralyzed Superboy before he could escape or tire Chaos up. Once he'd managed to put up and activate the seal, Chaos put Superboy into sleep and wrap his body with the seeking sphere. He tried to recall the events before he passed out, but all he could were blurry images but he managed to determine what caused him to pass out and what could've been the cause of Superboy acting as such. Chaos and the rest of the team was mentally attacked and he'd only just been able to put a strong enough shield on himself and let his previously created barriers protect the others.

Based on the events that he'd experienced, he assumed that the telepathic attack was either to wipe out memories or to cause an extreme change in personality, he leaned more on the former. He also assumed that the team was separated due to an explosion, a heavy gust of wind or a telekinetic blast, but that he had been preoccupied with the mental attack to properly address the situation in the physical world. In order to ascertain his teammates' locations, he extended his senses - physical, magical, mental - and he did.

He found Miss Martian already coming to consciousness, but instead made for Aqualad. Out of the team, Aqualad was the one that needs most attention, considering they were in a desert, water would be very scarce and Atlanteans always needed hydration, so he ported himself and Superboy at Aqualad's location, not an easy feat. Once they did, he immediately conjured a water globe and levitated Aqualad's body into it.

He started hearing gibberish with Miss Martian's voice and attempted contact, _"M'gann!"_ He heard Miss Martian still continue speaking gibberish, _"It's me, Chaos or Naruto, whichever."_

_"I'm sorry, do I know you?"_ Okay, so that confirms the theory that the telepathic attack was made to wipe out memories.

_"Do you remember being on Earth before now?"_ He could almost feel her shaking her head.

_"No, I've always wanted to go here, but I don't remember doing so. How do you know my name?"_

_"I know this is going to be a shock, but stay calm. You've been attacked telepathically, in an attempt to erase your memory, or at least shatter them. You have been in Earth for at least two months now, and you are a part of a team, Young Justice. The team has been separated from everyone through means unknown but I've managed to locate everyone else. Come to my location, if you can find me."_

He felt others slowly coming into consciousness, but can't leave Aqualad alone until he, himself, had claimed his own. He can already feel Miss Martian going to his general direction so he need not guide her on the way. Instead, he attempted contact with another one who he thought would likely have had similarly strong mental defenses, _"Big brother!"_

_"Ugh… Naruto? What happened?"_

_"We've been attacked, can you port yourself to my location?"_ As soon as he asked, he saw a flash of light and the form of Sage came from it. "I've already located the others, Miss Martian is going this way but the others are still unconscious."

"Thank the heavens I'd actually listened to Orochimaru in putting seals in my mind. Not that snake from your world, but the one from mine."

Chaos nodded his head slowly, as Miss Martian's hovering form came from over a hill of sand and continued making her way towards the four. "If you don't mind, will you take care of Aqualad? I'll go gather the rest of the team. Whatever we'd come here for must have caught the attention of Bialyans, and that must have caused the attack. I doubt we'll be left in peace much later." Before he could go, Miss Martian arrived with the group, and he said, "Hello again." With a wave, he vanished with a flash of light.

"Hello M'gann." Sage said, pointing his hands towards the water globe Aqualad was in, to maintain it while waiting for the Atlantean to claim consciousness.

"Are you Chaos?" Miss Martian asked.

Sage shook his head, "Chaos was the one who just left, seeking to gather the other displaced members of the team. I am Sage, but you can also call me Arashi. This is Aqualad, and the other is Superboy."

Miss Martian nodded her head then contemplated on some thoughts, "If we were attacked mentally to wipe our memories, how come you can remember yours?"

Sage sent her a small smile, "There are magical seals that protect my mind from mental attacks as those happened often where I came from, in order to successfully attack my mind, the nature of the assault must be of similar nature, magic. My little brother, the one who had called you had only is memories protected by seals, while he would protect himself through telepathy."

"Alright… Any thoughts on how I can help?" Miss Martian asked.

"You are a telepath." Sage said, "Try and piece together your own memories, then you can help restore the others' memories later."

Miss Martian nodded, with a light blush on her face, as she crossed her legs below her, still hovering in the air. Several minutes passed before Aqualad finally came out of unconsciousness and Sage dropped his hold on the water globe, and Aqualad fell on the desert floor, sand sticking onto his wet form. He looked around at the people he was around suspiciously, then whipped out his water-bearers, gathering the fallen water into his weapons.

"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?" Aqualad asked, pointing his morning star shaped weapon, while keeping his shield to protect his torso. While Miss Martian remained in her trance and Superboy continued to be in a deep sleep, Sage looked on calmly at the threatened Atlantean.

"What do you remember? Do you know of Chaos, or Kid Flash, or Robin?" Sage asked.

"Yes, I do remember them, why? Are they here? Have you kidnapped us?" Aqualad made a move towards Sage, water-bearing morning star still raised threateningly.

"Yes, they are here, but not for the situation you have in your mind. Your memories, up until which time, month or year, had been wiped from your mind, just earlier this evening. When we were given the task of investigating a sudden hole in the time-space continuum had been made here, in the Bialyan desert, and had vanished just as quickly. I am Sage, this is Miss Martian and the other, Superboy."

"Under whose orders? Bialyan territory is one that is highly presumed full of hostiles." Aqualad asked, lowering his shield and morning star, shifting to become blades.

"Batman." Aqualad's eyes widened at that, and opened his mouth, but didn't get to speak as Sage continued, "Batman assigns us missions, as part of the deal, when you, Chaos, Kid Flash, Robin and Speedy - now known as Red Arrow - defied League orders and made an excursion on Project Cadmus, while taking Superboy out of it."

It was at that moment that Miss Martian snapped out of her trance, "I remember mostly everything now!"

"Good." Chaos said, appearing in a flash, together with Artemis, Kid Flash, Red Arrow, and Zatanna, all of whom were very confused at the events passing before their eyes. "Help me restore their memories. Without any, Superboy will continue to just rage on until we do restore them. With your own fragmented memories, we might just manage to figure out what happened before we all passed out."

"Hang on, you still haven't explained to any of us the situation we're facing." Artemis said.

"We don't really have to. You will remember, soon enough." Chaos said, as glowing blue seals started to encircle him which then branched out towards the others, sans Sage.

* * *

**-1443 EEST, 3 September 2010; Bialyan Desert-**

"Everything go according to plan?" Aqualad asked as he motioned for the bioship to lift from the desert, and back to base. An hour or so after they had their memories restored back the way they were supposed to be, the team had tried to take on the telepath, Psimon, after having agreed to have magical blocks in their minds as well as psychic ones. The moment they had entered the tent that housed several Bialyan troops with the telepath, the three magic users, Chaos, Sage, and Zatanna, were had collapsed and were rendered catatonic, much like how Chaos had been when he was abducted by the League of Shadows, thus compromising their attempt the second time and they took their unconscious teammates to the bioship where Aqualad took watch over them.

"Mission finally accomplished and we were able to take some freaky, maybe alien or future, tech with us." Kid Flash answered, "Well, five we took, the other three actually just followed. There were loads of those things there and we didn't think there'd be enough room here for us to take them with us."

Behind Artemis, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Red Arrow, Robin and Superboy were five large metallic spheres rolling after the team, while they themselves were carrying some smaller devices on their arms. Miss Martian took the controls from Aqualad while the Atlantean joined the rest of the team on the seats before the head.

"Great, now that mission's over, how're we going to explain three of our numbers being rendered unconscious for another indefinite period of time?" Artemis asked.

"We believe one of these technologies we've taken might give us some answers." Robin answered, "While all these devices emit some types energy, one of these was actually just recently used, bearing the Apokolipsian technology signature; we believe we're currently in over our head right now."

"If you are right that these tech really belong to them, then we must establish contact with the League immediately. We don't know what these things can do, but we might finally make some head start on figuring them out. We should really make at least some form of defense against the things these are capable of." Aqualad said.

"Can't agree more with you on that." Kid Flash said, "I don't think I can handle another episode of a worldwide catastrophe."

"Going out of Bialyan territory in five seconds." Miss Martian said, "And we're out, establishing contact with the League."

"Mission debriefing is supposed to be done when you arrive at the cave, what are you doing contacting this place when there is still the possibility this call is being traced, or worse, tracked." Batman hissed.

"This is an emergency call, three of our members are out and we've spied Apokolipsian technology back out there in the Bialyan desert. You can reprimand us when we've returned to base, but just the sight of these smuggled tech in numbers larger than a hundred is something out of our league." Robin said.

After a few seconds, Batman stayed pensive then turned to another screen that popped up beside theirs, "Superman, we've got a situation over at Bialya, the Young Justice has discovered a large amount of Apokolipsian technology. Take as much with you as you see fit. Sending coordinates now."

"You may want to leave out anyone that uses magic, we've got three of us taken out because of those tech." Superboy commented.

"Also, as much as possible, take someone psychic with you, we've disabled Psimon, but I don't know how long he'll be out of it. Also, they may have called backup or is out to change locations right now, we've been discovered, with the result that we were held off and only now did we make contact." Red Arrow added.

* * *

**-1734 EDT, 5 September 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

Sitting cross-legged on the carpet before the fireplace with all furniture pushed out, Naruto continued in his trance with his face scrunched up, heavy concentration clear on his expressions. To either side are Arashi and Kent, observing him intently. He threw his hands up in defeat and lay on the carpet whilst his spectators frowned at his behavior. Just earlier in the morning, Minato had managed to reverse engineer one of the devices that the team took and taken the three magicians of Young Justice out of their coma. He had said that the device acted like some sort of virus emitter and made their magic act against them.

Right now, Naruto, as he'd been instructed days before to begin his training to control his reality manipulation abilities the way Arashi had, Sage Arts. He'd been told that Arashi no longer has access to the summoning plane and, thus, Naruto was forced to do his training on either the Rock of Eternity or the Tower of Fate where his powers would not affect the world outside as they'd been disconnected from the space-time continuum. He trusted the League to come up with a defensive mechanism to protect everyone from the harmful effects of the Apokolipsian devices, just as they trusted him to never break his word on never using his powers until he'd gotten it under control.

"How do you do this! This is so hard, how could you make it look like you're just reading a book, and 'poof', you're doing it!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, firstly, I trained in a place where mana or cosmic energy was abundant so I could have easily felt it, it also helped that I could actually see it with my eyes. I knew right from the beginning that you attempting this would be a very hard work as you'd been basically gathering it before you even knew you had the ability to do so." Arashi explained.

"Yeah? Well, that's just unfair! How would I even begin doing this consciously instead of subconsciously?!" Naruto whined.

"For starters, stop whining. You could never get anything done by whining." Kent reprimanded Naruto, then, a thought passed his mind, turning to Arashi, he asked, "Do you know, or have you seen any place here that would be similar to the place you'd mentioned?"

"Physically, no. Figuratively, space. Outer space." Arashi said, thoughtfully, "Stars are always full, even bursting, of cosmic energy, though you can't really get close enough without burning yourself in the process. I don't know if what the Lanterns use is the same, but I've sensed subtle hints of it in the energy they project and in the rings they wore."

"Maybe when things simmer down here, you could go out in space, and do your thing." Kent said with a chuckle.

"When will that ever happen?" Naruto asked rhetorically.

"Probably never, or when, you know, villains finally run dry of their evil plans, which is, again, probably never." Arashi said.

"You know what a rhetoric is, right?" Naruto asked.

"Of course. I won't ever forget those times you'd answered those all questions Wade threw at you. Who knew you would actually think of getting in a conversation with that insane guy?" Arashi said, laughing boisterously.

Naruto grumbled something incomprehensible at that and huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. It was times like this that he missed the most during his five years away from his family and he'd been grateful that he got them back, though he will never ever say that out loud. While he's still weary of the intentions of the people who had brought his family to him, he had assured himself that they really were his parents and big brother.

While his family had told him that they were sworn to secrecy about how it happened, they also gave their escorts a firm amount of trust. Naruto had been told that the twelve Guardians of Reality, as they called themselves, were breaking some sort of rule by letting Naruto have his family back, but did so for Naruto's sake, and that simply baffled him. Why would anyone who didn't really know him care for his welfare, he assumed they did not really know him, how could they?

Nonetheless, after he had a scan of their minds, he didn't find anything wrong, no blocks in memories, no sealed up parts of the brain, no words nor memories to stir up that would change their personalities, or intentions, or motivations - unlike the sleeper agents he'd caught over the years with or without ties to the League. It was something he'd been trained to do, especially as they were people who had ugly ties with the Hand. Without anything to connect their suspicions to, even the League had conceded the innocence of his family, and while still on probation, they'd received as much respect and acknowledgement as Naruto had during his first years in this world, and that would only build up as time goes by and they prove themselves trustworthy.

"By the way, you still haven't explained why Nabu said what he said during my time with him." Naruto said, looking at Kent.

Kent sighed heavily, shaking his head in the process, "I had said this before, and I will say it again. Whatever Nabu told you is something that is not for me to explain nor give any details about such entitlement. You are a prince, that is all you could get out of me as I do not really understand the situation myself."

"Ooohhh… I just remembered now…" Arashi said, getting Naruto's and Kent's attentions, "It was something I'd tried so hard to forget, I had often only thought of it as something that entails the responsibility I had failed a long time ago… I, myself, was also called a prince. The people of my world had called me such, even the demons, though they often spat at the title. It was because I had inherited the abilities my ancestor's, the demon emperor, to create everything from nothing, to take illusions out of dreams and make them reality, the Creation of All Things. It isn't really as simple as you would think magic is, no. This power I had supposedly inherited had given me the ability to create or destroy entire universes, dimensions, timelines, realities at naught but a thought. However, I couldn't do it. It has to come with a price that was too high and was something I wasn't willing to sacrifice - to discard my humanity, and embrace my demonic heritage."

"But, what about me? I'm not a demon… Not even partly, so what makes me similar?" Naruto asked, fearful.

"I do not know how or why, but only one like you should have been born in a single reality at a time, but there were two of you. Two who had so much raw ability, even at birth, with the same powers I was supposed to have had. While you and Franklin merely thought of it as games at the time, to create or destroy an entire universe, even just a pocket one, takes much power while you had thought nothing of them as games."

"I thought we were over this." Naruto whined, feeling reprimanded.

"No, it's just that it's only now that I am awed of it. Back then, we could only think of nothing but your safety, but now that we're talking about it, it's simply nothing short of amazing or astonishing. It basically beats depowering mutants with words."

"So what? What does that have to do with me being a prince?" Naruto asked, rather exasperatedly, his big brother was beating around the bush now.

Arashi gave him a small smile at that, "Naruto, it means that whatever you choose to do with that power could very much lead the entire universe in a lasting peace or cause its very own destruction. Very much like what a ruler would be, your decisions in life might as well be the decision of what the universe would rejoice upon or suffer under."

"What?"

Arashi said nothing more as he ruffled Naruto's hair, while Kent just looked on at the 'siblings' sadly.

* * *

**End Chapter**


	5. Revelation

Dialogue types:

_"Telepathic Communication"_

**_"Radio Communication/Nonhuman telepathic communication"_**

**"Nonhuman Speaking"**

"Regular Speech"

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Young Justice, those titles, together with characters present in the stories, are owned by Masashi Kishimoto and DC comics, respectively.

* * *

**-1853 EDT, 22 September 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

Around the living room area sat Arashi, Kent, Minato, and Naruto, whilst Kushina tended to the violet haired girl with several cuts and bruises on her face, arms and back, and burns on her legs and feet in the infirmary. They found her trying to escape a group of otherworldly beings after Kent sensed a disturbance in the dimension barriers. They had responded immediately, with Kent donning the Helmet of Fate and creating a portal to the Salem, Oregon. They were the only ones in the Tower and couldn't afford to have anymore rips in the time-space fabric, the ones from last month were still on their way to being fully repaired.

They were demons, a bit different from the demons four of them had encountered in Limbo, their energy signatures and physical appearances were far more similar to those of demons of Limbo than any creature of this reality they were in. As soon as they had arrived, they noticed the larger and more vicious creatures were in pursuit of the girl in a hooded blue cape. Chaos and Sage intercepted the pursuing creatures, Psychic Rose caught the girl who was falling out of consciousness and Golden Flash and Doctor Fate began to repair the hole.

And so, here they were, trying to treat the girl's injuries, or rather, Kushina was. The others were rubbish in the healing arts, and while Doctor Fate could have done it by himself, being the host of the Lord of Order was taxing to Kent. Kushina, meanwhile, learnt what she can about herblore, aided with her chlorokinetic abilities, from Tsunade. Chaos and Sage were getting antsy at having the barrier between worlds broken, they were unable to make a portal to where they came from but those demons had been able to come to this world in a rather large number. So, instead not doing anything, they had opted to fix the rips in the fabric of reality in Earth while inside the Tower of Fate.

Naruto and Arashi would be going for Mount Justice much later, they decided, after the girl in the infirmary wakes. They need to know who she is and why the demons were after her and they can't take this situation to the League considering stigmas and stereotypes with someone whose heritage is similar. Naruto and Arashi took their meditative stances that would correspond to the position they would take for Sage Arts. Over the course of the month, Chaos had managed to 'feel' the faint cosmic energy flowing in the air - the first step to the seven steps of Sage training. He'd agreed with Sage that until he had gone through, at least, the sixth step, he wouldn't utilize his ability to manipulate reality.

An hour had already passed since Naruto and Arashi took their stances before Kushina came through the door, the little girl covered in bandages behind her. Naruto had only managed to gather a thousandth of the required amount of cosmic energy before he could move on to the next step, and is currently slumping on the ground, sweat flowing through his brow. Arashi stood, together with Kent and Minato beside Kushina to properly greet the girl whilst Naruto remained on the floor, breathing heavily.

"Hello, my name is Kent Nelson." Kent said gently, "This is Arashi, Minato and Kushina, and that is Naruto." He added, gesturing to each of the people who waved at the girl as their name was said - well, Naruto just waved his raised hands, not at her, as he was still on the ground, "What's yours?"

"Rachel." the girl said in a timid little voice.

"Do you know where you are?" Kent asked.

"Azar said she'd send me to Earth." Rachel replied simply, looking down at her feet.

"Why did Azar send you here?" Kent asked, though he did not know who the person she mentioned is.

"She said it was to get me away from father's goons, she said he's evil." Rachel answered with a slight tremor in her voice.

At that, the adults exchanged glances with each other, while Arashi stared at her, his eyes changing from cerulean to the metallic purple extending out of his irises with concentric circles around them. Kushina knelt down in front of the girl and hugged her, which the girl returned tighter.

"What about your mother?" Minato asked.

"They-they…" Rachel whimpered, then broke down, sobbing and sniffling.

"They killed her." Arashi said simply, which caused the girl's sobs and sniffles to become full blown wailing and crying. His eyes changed from the metallic purple back to cerulean then his form flared with ethereal yellowish energy outlined with orange. Gradually, the girl's wails and cries simmered down and she returned to sobbing and sniffles. Then, a few more seconds, her sobs and sniffles died down, replaced with hiccupping, rubbing of her eyes and wiping of her nose and tear-stained cheeks.

The girl nodded her head silently, looking down and refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Still sitting on the ground, she hugged the blue cloak that she got back after she woke over her black clothes and pulled her hood up - with telekinesis, it seems. Arashi leaned in closer to Kent and Minato then whispered, "Her energy signature is somehow similar to someone I know… I'm going to try and ask her if she knows him."

Arashi knelt beside Kushina who was rubbing circles at the girl's back while Rachel was taking deep breaths, her eyes closed. Kushina took her hand off of Rachel once the girl's breathing steadied and gained a black aura around her form. Arashi put a hand on Kushina's shoulder, "I'll take it from here." He said, and with a nod, Kushina stood and rejoined the others, beside Minato, to observe. Naruto was now standing between Kent and Minato, a look of curiosity clear on his face.

Arashi sat cross-legged in front of Rachel, where Kushina was before, and just like the girl before him, also emitted a black aura around him, his clothes and hair turning black. Rachel's black aura became larger and took the form of a raven, enveloping her form with its wings. They stayed like that for what seemed like forever when Arashi's aura took the shape of an obsidian samurai armor, black wings folded behind him and two long black katana on either side of him. It was very creepy, considering that his formed black aura was now also outlined with a violet-purple aura.

**"You are the emperor's daughter."** The observers heard a very warped deep voice from where Arashi's armored form sat.

**"And you are the prince, the true heir to the throne of Limbo."** The observers turned to Rachel, but she didn't even open her mouth, the warped voice came from the raven.

**"I had long forsaken that title, I had long before abandoned that world. The power is no longer in my body, transferred to another, through fragments of my soul that I had separated before my body was remade and I was reborn to take back the fragments of my soul. You do not belong to this world, this reality, just like I am… why are you here?"**

**"The emperor has made his move. He has decided to cross dimensions and conquer all realities. I was made to replace one of his generals, but I escaped before he could take me."**

On cue, an alert rang through the Tower and a holographic form of Kent appeared in front of the original, "A portal from Azarath has been opened at the top of the tower."

That's all they needed to hear as they all immediately vanished from the room with a flash of light.

* * *

**-2214 EDT, 22 September 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

Yellow light flashed through the cave as Chaos and Sage were revealed none the worse for wear after their battle at the top of the Tower of Fate. They had been stuck in battle with the hordes of demons spilling from the portal for at least half an hour, but the moment that a gigantic head peeked through it, with three pairs of red eyes, the battle was over. It was at that moment that Sage had used the 'big guns', calling the Nine Tailed Beasts, which he pulled into his body and his form exploded to become a gigantic being made from the same yellowish ethereal energy his form would take when he entered Sage mode, except the energy was much denser and less wispy.

With Sage in the middle, the four-faced six-handed giant had thrown six black energy spheres at the portal and swept the top of the tower, uncaring who was taken with it as his allies had been enveloped together with Sage in the giant. It all happened in a second but the aftermath of the battle was devastating on the side of the demons, as before the explosion could reach the portal, the giant form took hold of the edges of the gaping hole with its six hands, and forced it to close.

While Sage was exhausted for three hours, he had managed enough energy to walk after two hours and regained half of his stamina within the third. Just before they exited the Tower of Fate, Sage released the Tailed Beasts and left them to rest on their own, their form having taken diminutive sizes. The same situation could have been what happened in the interior of Mount Justice as they saw the wrecked terrain of the cave and their teammates, sans Zatanna, lay in a heap before the halls that led to the meeting room.

Chaos and Sage ran towards the downed members of the team to check on their vitals, while taking in the situation and thinking of what caused such devastation.

"Good, you're here. Where were you?" Kid Flash asked as he saw their running forms.

"Battling a horde of demons atop the Tower of Fate, nothing much." Sage answered, too nonchalantly, then asked his own question, "What the hell happened here?"

"Had a visit with Red Tornado's siblings." Superboy grunted. He and Kid Flash were currently trapped in an wrought-up steel-iron prison that limited their body movements, but he managed to point his head towards the two red androids lying on the ground not far from where they were.

"You really can't use that same technique Flash does, huh?" Chaos asked, observing Kid Flash closely, "When I do learn to control cosmic energy completely, do you want me to alter your molecules so that you can do what Flash does too? I've heard the Silver Surfer does that with his Power Cosmic."

"Would be really helpful if you can do that right now." Kid Flash grumbled, "But I'm not the one in the worst situation, check on Kaldur and M'gann!"

Chaos nodded his head while Sage remained where he was, his hands outstretched towards the trapped form of Kid Flash and Superboy. The iron started loosening around the two while the outer part of the cage started disintegrating, floating towards Sage and gathering before Sage's hands, forming a gray iron sphere. Golden light particles was showering and floating around the exhausted forms of Artemis, Aqualad, Miss Martian, Red Arrow and Robin, with Chaos standing outside a rune circle that surrounded his teammates. It was a spell his grandmother taught him to recover some lost energy, but not heal any wounds present in the body, healing required a much more precise control than he could ever achieve.

"When you said not to wait up, I'd expected you guys would be here two hours earlier. It's like you guys only just came here to check on the cave." Robin grumbled.

"Yeah, well… we were supposed to have gone here four hours ago, but we got held up with the threat of a demonic invasion, that should have been enough explanation."

"An invasion? Where? When?" Robin asked.

"In Louisiana then at the Tower, just five hours ago. However, seeing as you guys were preoccupied with your own predicaments, we don't blame you for being unable to respond to it. It was just a quick run through so we didn't think of having to summon assistance from the League." Chaos said, plus they didn't really want the League to know of Rachel being in their care for now.

"Damned androids." Red Arrow hissed.

"You guys alright?" Sage asked, coming up the stairs, Kid Flash and Superboy in tow.

"Miss Martian's still unconscious, but there are no fatal injuries, so I guess you could say that they are." Chaos answered.

At that moment, they felt the wind shift towards the hallways where Red Tornado appeared, his lower form covered in a red mini-tornado. Superboy stomped angrily towards the android followed closely by Kid Flash, Red Arrow, and Robin. Aqualad, Artemis, Chaos, and Sage stayed behind to inspect Miss Martian. Red Tornado stopped in front of the irate Superboy and the wind died down as his form lowered to the ground.

"Care to explain this family visit?!" Superboy hissed, motioning towards the downed reds.

"I was not aware I had any relations." Red Tornado said, brushing off the teens, and going towards the ones the team dubbed his family. "When it became clear that cave communications had been cut off, I immediately tried to investigate but your Zeta-Tubes were also nonfunctional, I transferred to providence and proceeded towards this place, thus my late arrival."

Two of the five spheres that followed the team on their way back to Mount Justice rumbled and made their ways towards the two groups, but as they did so, they experienced an unusual situation. Red Tornado, with eyes glowing red, attacked the two groups, creating a vacuum to suck the air out of their lungs. Chaos made a hasty shield around their group then teleporting towards the other and did the same. As he did so, the air calmed around him and their group sucked in a big gulp of air to refill their lungs of the much needed oxygen.

Sage pulled open the barrier over their group and did a quick spell to bring down the turbulent winds but as he did so, all the reds were already gone out of sight.

* * *

**-0641 EDT, 23 September 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

"You guys knew and didn't care to tell us?!" Kid Flash roared at Aqualad, Chaos, Red Arrow and Sage.

"Yes, we did. We kept it from you as information such as this would cause distrust and discord amongst the group, not knowing who to trust and giving the traitor, if there is one, a clue that information about there being a mole in the team to cover up tracks. Besides the source of such information is not one we can trust." Sage answered, sagely.

"Who is this source then." Superboy asked, coldly, his back still turned away from them as they continued their stride towards the bioship.

"Sportsmaster." Red Arrow answered, shocking the team to silence, "While I was on duty with Green Arrow on the peace summit between North and South Rhelasia, the League of Shadows attempted to assassinate Lex Luthor. I moved to pursue the assassin, Cheshire, but she had met Sportsmaster along the way and had me double-teamed. He had taunted me with the information, and before they could kill me, I managed to escape with Green Arrow arriving in time. Batman already knew of this information and had thought it as the same way Sage said. If we knew of a mole in the team, the traitor might use that information to play us against each other."

"Big brother and I only ever knew of this, because, as you know, I am very good at finding information and we're good at keeping secrets that they trusted us enough to keep this amongst ourselves. We only ever did it to keep a healthy relationship in the team." Chaos added.

"What other secrets are you keeping from us?" Robin hissed. At this, Chaos scanned the faces of his teammates, and smirked behind his mask.

"More than you know. Perhaps, someday you guys will know them, but not today. Anyways, for those of you who wish to learn my secrets, look underneath the underneath. Don't let any stone go unturned, and always check the stone that has been turned." Chaos said, cryptically.

"Quoted directly from Kakashi, a family friend." Sage added.

"Hey!" Chaos shouted. They now entered the bioship, Captain Marvel - their temporary supervisor - bringing up the rear while observing them carefully.

"Right, look underneath the underneath… How is that applicable to this situation?" Artemis asked.

"Is it possible that Red Tornado isn't actually a traitor, that there really is no traitor and Sportsmaster only said that to rile us up?" Zatanna asked.

"It is a possibility, that he was only just looking out for us. He considered each of our vitals and thought that with most of us exhausted, we wouldn't have been able to defeat both of his 'family'." Chaos hypothesized, "A big miscalculation but an admirable effort, but that would also bring up the question, why didn't he just destroy them instead of escaping with them to protect us? Perhaps he was being sentimental, but robots don't really have emotions, do they?"

"Well, those spheres seemed to respond to our empathic signals." Artemis pointed out, "If those lights and beeps were anything to go by."

"Maybe it's not just in Red Tornado's programming, or maybe his programming changed when he came in close contact with them, instructing him to dispose of us and escape with the other reds. Again, that would bring up another question if it did prove right, why didn't he kill us outright? His move was made to knock us out, not kill, even if I haven't put up those barriers, the vacuum couldn't have killed any of us." Chaos said, presenting another hypothesis.

"Why are you so eager on defending Red Tornado? He might as well be the traitor we were informed of." Aqualad said, a bit of curiosity tinting his voice.

"I'm not saying that he isn't, I'm not saying that he is, I'm just presenting my hypotheses. Like I said, look underneath the underneath." Chaos said.

"Why don't we take our minds off of Red Tornado for now and focus on the mission? All these possibilities is hurting my head." Sage said.

* * *

**-2136 IST, 23 September 2010; Northern India-**

"So, what's the plan?" Chaos asked as the team got out of the camouflaged bioship. They looked at each other questioningly, none speaking or giving any ideas.

"You guys still haven't had a leader at this point?" Captain Marvel asked.

"We haven't really thought we'd need a leader, we'd just pitch in our own ideas to make up the plan and hope we get our own tasks done." Robin replied.

"Well, at this point you should have at least a lead strategist or tactician. Who amongst you has led this team the most?" Again, they looked at each other questioningly, and each of them shrugged and just thought of ideas for their own plans of the team's current mission. Captain Marvel sighed, "Alright, who led this team the last time?"

"The last successful one? Sage." Red Arrow answered.

Captain Marvel then turned to the 'teen' who was currently exuding a wispy black aura, his clothes and hair black, with a glowing violet crescent moon faced down. "Care to take the lead for this mission? I'm only here to supervise you guys, so I don't really belong here, you guys will make your own decisions, and must have a leader to finalize them."

"Okay, sure. So here's my idea… we scout the area and look for clues. Partner off with at least one other and report your findings through the intercom or we make a telepathic link. How does that sound?" Sage asked.

The team affirmed their agreement and went to find teammates to partner of: Aqualad with Robin, Artemis with Sage, Chaos with Kid Flash, Miss Martian with Red Arrow, and Superboy with Zatanna. Captain Marvel went on his own, taking the task to investigate where the incident was said to have happened.

After a few minutes of searching clues and following footprints, the groups were already in combat with several genetically enhanced animals - mammoth-like elephants, giant alligators, large wolves, highly intelligent baboons, vultures larger than a grown man and the like. While they were still unclear about the effects of the formula, the team had theorized that the animals they fought had been enhanced with either the Venom drug made by Bane and his thugs, the unknown Blockbuster formula from the Project Cadmus, or the combination of both. They had fought a man who was enhanced similarly to these animals back in Santa Prisca, but they didn't know what enhanced the man.

"If these animals are being controlled by the collars around their necks, then we must that a whoever is controlling the collars would be nearby. Check for any structures within the forest, at least a mile radius around where you guys had your encounter." Sage ordered.

"Found it, sending coordinates." Robin said.

Within minutes, the team found a detention facility surrounded by a force field that they disabled by having Miss Martian entering the facility whilst cloaked telepathically and hiding in a camouflage after Aqualad and Sage opened a hole in the barrier. After Miss Martian entered, it was a matter of finding the power generator and Chaos teleporting to her location. They searched the facility but found no perpetrator, merely collared genetically enhanced animals and an empty but recently used laboratory. They freed the animals and hacked into the computers present in the building but found the hard drives empty of data.

* * *

**-0333 EDT, 29 September 2010; Tower of Fate, Salem, Massachusetts-**

"Who are you?!" Naruto shouted as he heard his family screaming, but couldn't see anything other than a blonde bearded man wearing a blue suit. The man just continued walking towards him, but Naruto couldn't make sure of it as he saw no floor, just that the man's feet were moving forward while his family's screams subsided, as if they were being silenced gradually or were being taken far from him.

"Do you really not remember?" From beside him, he heard the voice of a woman, as he turned to look at the source, he saw a pink haired woman wearing a flowing red dress. Her soft green eyes looking directly into his but he couldn't tell what expression she was wearing on her face.

"I'm disappointed." On the other side of him, a brown haired man with a feral look in his slitted eyes but his expression showed sadness instead of ferocity. Wearing a grey kimono and wooden sandals with a large white wolf-hound by his side, the man looked him up and down then growled to someone behind, "You said his genes would make him more intelligent, almost the same as you."

"That he is. However, if he really doesn't remember him, then perhaps he hasn't ever seen his older self." Another man appeared behind the brown haired man - a black haired one this time. With his hair tied up, it looked like his head was that of the pineapple fruit. This man was wearing a black tuxedo suit with a red vest under his jacket. He had a very bored look on his face as he sized Naruto up just like the other one did.

"I am sorry, Naruto." The blonde haired man said as he came within hearing range of Naruto. Naruto silenced himself to observe the man before him, bright blue eyes, his hair almost the same shade of yellow his own hair is, but rather that being spiky, it was wavy and untamed. "While I shouldn't have made contact with you this early, I could no longer keep myself off. I have come to you for help in breaking a curse we all are under."

"I ask again, who are you?" Naruto asked more calmly this time, they didn't seem to want him harm, for now, if they want his help to break some kind of curse.

"Oh, for everyone's sakes, just tell him already!" Someone from behind Naruto exclaimed, exasperation clear in his voice. Naruto turned and saw eight more people coming into the light and within his sights. Three more women and six men, all wearing a formal attire, varying from each other's outfits, that got Naruto to feel out of place as he was currently wearing his pajamas, and his hair was currently very messed up.

One of the women, whose long platinum blonde hair was flowing behind her back, wore a deep violet sleeveless dress with a slit so high up her thigh that Naruto could already see a thin red fabric near her waist. Her eyes were unlike any he'd seen as she had blue-green irises, her pupil almost nonexistent.

Beside the blonde woman was a rather plump man, with long reddish-brown and straggly hair, wearing a dark red suit. He had on one hand a wine bottle and a goblet full of wine on the other. Beside him was another man with a curly black haired man whose brown trench coat covered most of his face, his eyes covered by black sunglasses, which is funny - there's no sun there.

The fourth he saw is another woman, a black haired woman whose hair was kept straight, the ends cut evenly. Wearing a pink kimono with white cherry blossom petal design littering it, Naruto was shocked to see her eyes - white and including the pupils. He'd seen those eyes before, the 'all-seeing' white eyes, one of the three great eyes inherited amongst the highly respected bloodlines in the empire of Limbo.

Naruto had to remind himself that this is a mere dream and that there is no need for attacks. Even if they really were demons, they wouldn't hurt him if they really wanted his help so he made no move and just continued on, observing the people before him.

Beside the white-eyed woman is a white-eyed man, with long brown hair tied behind his back. He was wearing a dark blue kimono with a grey hakama paired with wooden sandals. The sixth he caught in his sights is another man in a suit. With hair cut evenly, eyes almost completely circular and very thick eyebrows, he was almost like a less muscly version of Kakashi's friend, Might Guy.

The seventh person who he observed from the left to right amongst the newest additions to the group, was another woman, the final one. She had her brown hair tied up in a bun and is wearing an emerald qipao dress, and a large feathered fan covering half her face. Next to her was another man in a black suit, with black hair and inky black eyes, what was different about this man, however, was that his skin tone is very white, either too much make up or because of spending too much time in the darkness, just like Orochimaru in Naruto's own world was.

The final person was very much like the man before him, raven hair, inky black eyes, all-black suit and very pale skin. What differentiated the last man from the one before was the hair, instead of being the soft and thin strands like the one before, the last one had spiky hair styled very much like a duck's backside, his face framed by two bangs.

"We need you to break our immortality." Naruto turned back to the blonde man before him. Naruto looked at the man confusedly, why would he want his immortality broken, there were many who'd take immortality as a gift, but this man called it a curse.

"What? How? Why?" Naruto asked.

"I take it that a Lord of Order has told you of being a prince?" The blonde man asked, Naruto nodded. "You do understand that the title does not literally mean you are the heir to a kingdom or empire with hold to a land and the people in it, correct? Your 'big brother' as you call your other self was in a similar situation but has forsaken his hold of the title and passed his claim to the throne to another. The situation you are in is similar but not the same."

"While you are a prince, you are not yet the crown prince, there are many other candidates that we have judged and asked to break our curse, but they became either unworthy of the power or turned it down like your other self did. You are the tenth that we have called to take the throne, and is by far the one with the most experience with it and the most worthy."

Naruto stayed silent, frowning as the man before him continued his winding explanation, "While you are a prince, I am king. I am what your Sorcerer Supreme called 'the Presence'. We operate behind the veil of reality, only doing what we needed to do, coming into the world when necessary. My Guardians had fulfilled the promise that you'd be given your family, and I still await your answer on whether or not to return to your original world, but you need not answer, five more years, complete your training to master your greatest ability and answer me."

"You may have been whisked away from your original world, and I had only been a prince back then, you were the crown prince. If you do go back, please do prevent me from ever overthrowing you, or if you don't please take the crown off me."

At that moment, Naruto woke, his family, including Kent, were looking worriedly at him. Even the girl, Rachel, who was standing off at the distance was sending him worried glances.

"Naruto, what happened? We were trying to wake you for more than two hours now." Kushina said, sweat rolling down on her brow.

"It's those voices again, except they had shown their faces this time." Naruto answered.

* * *

**-1831 EDT, 1 October 2010; Mount Justice, Happy Harbor, Rhode Island-**

**"Recognized, Batman 02."** The metallic female voice of the cave's Zeta-tube's interface said, as Batman appeared through the tube and strode towards the sparring area where Aqualad and Robin where doing a light spar. Off to the side, stood Artemis, Kid Flash and Red Arrow and on another were Miss Martian and Superboy. By the holographic control interface stood Captain Marvel, Zatanna and her father, Zatara.

"Computer, national news." Batman ordered as soon as he stepped into the tiled sparring ring. Shown on the screen were members of the Justice League - the Green Lantern, Jon Stewart, Hawkwoman, and Hawkman, Superman - were fighting giant plant creatures in the middle of the city of Metropolis.

"Should we get out there? What's are our orders? What's the mission?" Robin asked his questions one after the other.

"No, the League will have this under control. According to your intel, the Cult of the Kobra had been supplied with the Blockbuster formula and had managed to create an even more dangerous drug by combining it with Bane's Venom. Those plants you see contains the mixture of the two we will call 'Kobra-Venom'." Batman informed those who were present. "It seems that villains from across the globe are beginning to form a secrets society. The attack in Metropolis are only the beginning, there have already been news of similar situations in at least five other locations."

At that moment, the screen showing the news became nothing but static, then a few seconds later, revealed the grinning face of the Joker. "Ladies and gentlemen, we interrupt your regularly scheduled mayhem to bring you this… important announcement… from the Injustice League." Joker finished with loud chuckles. On the screen showed Atomic Skull, Black Adam, Count Vertigo, Poison Ivy, Ultra-Humanite and Wotan, all standing proudly and closely.

"We have been responsible for the attacks in your cities. If you wish to save them, a ransom of ten billion American Dollars is required. Delivery instructions have been sent to the United Nations. There is no time limit, but the longer your governments wait…"

At that moment, Joker's gloved hand appeared on screen and grabbed it to tilt it and make it face him. "…The more we get our… jollies." Joker finished laughing maniacally at the end before ending the transmission in static.

"Roger that, Aquaman. The U.N. will prepare the ransom as a fallback, but it won't come to that." Batman said to his intercom.

"Seven heavy hitters that could probably have been behind everything and everyone we faced, but I doubt it." Red Arrow said, his eyes narrowing at the image of the six supervillains onscreen after Robin played the message back to their forms. "After all the secrecy, why would they show themselves up now?"

"Your doubts aside, we still have to deal with the situation. While we, the Justice League, will take care of the plants, your team will have to destroy the central control system. With plants attacking many places simultaneously, there must be one." Batman said.

"You're seriously putting them up against those?" Zatara asked, incredulously.

"They are ready." Batman replied simply. "I trust you can locate the enemy."

"Indeed. Wotan's involvement suggests the usage of sorcery is part of how the plants are controlled." Zatara turned to Robin, "Robin, if you will provide a holomap."

A few keys pressed and a holographic globe appeared before them and Zatara chanted: **"Etacol retnecipe fo yrecros!"**

A red pulsing dot appeared on the holographic globe at the same time that light flashed around the cave then Chaos and Sage appeared before everyone, battle ready. "Sorry, we got sidetracked… We came as soon as possible."

"Right, we have the coordinates. We'll tell you guys the mission on the way." Robin said as the team ran for the hangar.

* * *

**-1903 CDT, 1 October 2010; Bayou Bartholomew, Louisiana-**

"Miss Martian, you sure you really don't want any more defensive or offensive systems installed in that ship of yours?" Chaos asked as they got out of the sinking bioship being pulled into the water by plant vines. Half of the members of Young Justice were currently soaking wet having just swam through the waters of the bayou.

"I'm only, just now, rethinking that now. After this mission, I'll give an answer, maybe." Miss Martian answered just before they had experienced a dizzying and nauseating wave of some kind energy, probably psionic, the Vertigo effect, courtesy of Count Vertigo.

Sage managed to throw it off and sent wave upon wave of wind gusts followed by four streams of water, a combined effort made by Aqualad and Chaos, sending Count Vertigo and Black Adam to the ground. As they did, large plant vines, roots and branches erupted from the ground to assault the team, only for those to be disintegrated when they were about ten meters from the group, Miss Martian's eyes were glowing green and her hand raised towards the offending plant appendages.

"Artemis, Red Arrow, Robin, Zatanna, proceed with the mission, we'll lure them out to give you the cover to execute what you need to do." Sage ordered. The team had agreed that for the mean time, Sage will take the lead until such a time that they could finalize leadership amongst the group. Sage had some fair amount of time as a leader whilst in the X-men, having led many covert operations Cyclops had assigned when Wolverine couldn't take charge. He's had experience in his time back in Limbo when he was hiding with his teachers and he'd applied what he could, like delegating mission objectives while a part of the group took the brunt of the attack, he had done it often with his clones often.

Over the almost two months of Sage being in this world, he had worked nonstop at gaining the trust of people he met, just like in his former. While he had met some opposition due to his heritage, he didn't give up, and as time passed by, they eventually judged him trustworthy, faster in this world, even, due to Chaos' influence. The four superheroes ordered ran off with Robin taking the lead, following the directions presented in his console while Sage conjured four clones and had them transform into the four he'd just ordered to carry on.

Their splinter team had gone unnoticed as their opponents were still downed by their previous attacks but their reprieve was cut short as Black Adam, soaking wet, charged for the group and was met by Superboy halfway. Roots then emerged behind them, and whilst Poison Ivy was still out of sight, Chaos and Miss Martian had already found her location - just behind the trees - and they moved to engage her to stop her sneak attacks just after Aqualad sent water blades at the roots with his water bearers. Kid Flash zoomed in and out of the battle, taking chances with jabs and punches at Count Vertigo and, occasionally, aiding Superboy against Black Adam if he was on a tight spot.

Dodging to the right, then to the left, and jumping up and attempting an axe-kick on Ultra-Humanite, Robin-clone managed to dodge another slap from the white gorilla before doing a roundhouse kick on the machine gun he attempted to lift then a sweeping kick to knock the ape down. Ultra-Humanite rolled back only to be shot by two exploding arrows, courtesy of Artemis-clone and Red Arrow-clone. Ultra-Humanite roared and shot barrel upon barrel of bullets at the archers only for those to stop upon hitting an invisible barrier, conjured by Zatanna-clone theatricality added by saying, **"Pot eht stulleb!"**

Sage, meanwhile, were currently engaging Atomic Skull, who was blasting streams of radioactive nuclear energy towards them, only for that stream to be constantly absorbed by Sage, whose eyes had turned metallic purple with four concentric rings around his pupil. Aqualad, on the other hand, was preparing his water bubble to imprison Atomic Skull within, awaiting the signal from Sage. The signal had been fired, in the form of five plasma blasts from Sage's transformed arm that managed to hit Atomic Skull square on his torso. Still full of nuclear energy he needs to release, Sage fired more plasma blasts towards Black Adam, only for it to hit a barrier.

Floating downwards was the sorcerer, Wotan, garbed in a black-caped red tight-fit suit of armor, his glowing left hand out-stretched towards the fading orange barrier while his right was encased in blue magical fire, ready to fire at any threat. "Well, isn't this a treat, the demon comes out to meet his doom." Wotan sneered.

"Right, because you could totally decimate me with the snap of your hand. If you couldn't even defeat Chaos in magical combat, what makes you think you can take me on?" Sage asked sardonically, floating upwards to meet Wotan at the same height, "I am learned in the mystical arts sixteen years longer than he, and there are many other talents I could use against the likes of you."

Before Sage could cast a spell, a large raging blue fireball engulfed his form, while Wotan tsked lazily, "Apparently, experience means nothing. You may have a more years spent training in the mystical arts than the brat, but I have centuries worth of knowledge you couldn't even begin to comprehend." The blue fire died down, revealing nothing, no charred body nor ashes as remains.

"Oh yeah?" Sage asked from behind Wotan, black fire dancing around his form, and a dragon shaped flame of the same color was gliding to and fro around the two mystical combatants. Wotan turned to witness Sage's bright costume had changed drastically. Sage's metallic purple eyes glowed together with the violet crescent on his chest, his black aura spilling from his black clothes and his flaring black hair, "Let's test that, shall we?"

Sage flicked his hands towards Wotan, black fire streaming from his form. Wotan cast a runic circle before him, to create a mirror and reflect the attack, but it did nothing as the fire passed through it and consumed it. Before it could touch him, he flew upwards and a gigantic blue magic circle started forming up in the sky, clouds began to swirl and darken, lightning flashed in the distance and thunder rolled seconds later. At that, another dragon appeared from the sky, this time, formed with lightning and engulfed Wotan before the magic circle could be completed.

Down on the ground, Black Adam had Superboy down and was currently engaging the clones Sage had created together with Aqualad, while Ultra-Humanite was subdued and unconscious, and Atomic Skull's water prison had been turned to ice, its prisoner also unconscious. Beside Count Vertigo, a bright yellow and orange flame flared before dying down to show Wotan's charred form. In the distance, they heard a faint explosion as the giant plant the Injustice League used to control the others was burned down to a crisp. In the forest around them, giant thorny vines were jutting out, in addition to spikes made of earth coated with burning hot lava.

From the tree line, Chaos and Miss Martian emerged together with the unconscious Poison Ivy floating behind them. Floating towards them, above devastated forest, are five people standing on a large black disk. With the Joker in the middle, chatting insanely and boisterously, and four superheroes in a rectangular formation around him, they floated to the ground. As they got off the disk, it transformed into a sphere which shot towards Black Adam and encased him to restrain his movements before being sent into unconsciousness with a telepathic blast from Miss Martian.

Count Vertigo was about to announce his surrender as several attacks were trained on him, when the Justice League arrived.

* * *

**End Chapter**


End file.
